


The Enemy of my Enemy

by FantasiaWandering



Series: Pacific Turtles [1]
Category: Pacific Rim (2013), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Crossover, Family, Friendship, Gen, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-18
Updated: 2014-06-19
Packaged: 2018-02-05 05:27:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 38,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1806976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FantasiaWandering/pseuds/FantasiaWandering
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>War makes for unlikely allies, and when the dimensional breach in the ocean floor allows monsters into the world, four unlikely heroes emerge from the shadows to save their city from destruction. As a hapless rookie learns the truth behind the elusive Rangers who pilot the Jaeger called Shell Shocker, he must adapt to this strange new reality, or be consumed by the Kaiju war.</p><p>(An AU in which the events of Pacific Rim begin just after the end of Season One of TMNT 2012)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Enter the Shatterdome

**Author's Note:**

> This is an AU of sorts that assumes that the first Kaiju attack in Pacific Rim happens just after the end of Season One of TMNT 2012. I owe xenelle055's on DeviantArt / azraelskeith on tumblr for the drawing that motivated me to actually write it down, and for the Jaeger's name.

**Chapter 1: Enter the Shatterdome**

* * *

The massive steel doors clanged shut behind him, and the echoes that reverberated through the soles of his feet were worse than any of the times that a cell door shut behind him. Biting his lip, AJ shouldered the duffel bag that contained all his worldly possessions, painfully aware of how small it was.

It certainly didn't look much different than prison. Featureless concrete walls adorned with serial numbers to help differentiate one corridor from another stretched off in several directions, populated by PPDC personnel who refused to look at him.

"Don't take it personally," a dry voice said behind him. "They try very hard not to get attached to rookies. Makes it easier on them when you leave."

AJ turned, a brow raising at the sight of the uniform standing before him. "Marshal Takahashi?"

The Marshal inclined his head and gestured for AJ to follow as he started down a corridor. Trying to hold back a sigh, AJ fell in at the Marshal's heels like the good little lap dog he'd been told to be. "Tell me, Rookie," Takahashi said, pausing at a door that opened to reveal a cramped elevator. "How much did you learn about the war while you were locked up in juvie?"

"Enough. And it wasn't juvie, sir," AJ said, stepping in behind the Marshal. "Hasn't been juvie for a while."

Takahashi waved a hand. "That facility you've been in and out of since you lost your mother in the first landfall is a baby jail," he said. "Don't think we're going to treat you nearly as nice in here."

Trying not to bristle as the Marshall punched a code into the elevator's keypad, AJ asked, "you know about my ma?"

"You're in my Shatterdome, kid, I make it my business to know everything about you. If I had my way, I'd have nothing but the country's finest in here. But we lost the country's finest in the Mark Ones, so now Rookies like you have the option of transferring to grown up jail at age twenty-one, or getting sent to basic training. Very soon we'll have a proper academy and we won't have this problem, but for now, we're stuck with what we can get" He turned to look at AJ, and the corner of his mouth quirked. "I think it's a terrible idea, but since the folks I answer to don't seem to give a damn what I think, I picked you. Fly straight, don't make waves, and you just might survive to be a Ranger." He planted a hand on AJ's shoulder. "Whether or not you survive after that is anybody's guess."

Again, Takahashi had managed to get the drop on him. "You picked me?" He followed as the elevator doors opened onto another featureless corridor. "With all due respect, sir, why?"

"Because, kid, you got thrown into baby jail for stealing rations."

"Lotsa people steal rations," AJ pointed out as he followed the Marshal.

"True," said Takahashi. "But very few of them are caught giving them away to street kids." They came to another set of doors. "We do things a bit differently here. You'll be required to keep certain secrets, and we don't exactly do things by the book. We could use someone with a sense of fair play."

AJ's response was lost as the Marshal punched the big red button next to the doors, and they slipped open with a ringing alarm.

The room beyond was enormous. AJ had never seen anything like it. As he stepped through, craning his neck, he couldn't even begin to fathom just how high up it went. And all of it was to accommodate…  _them._

The Jaegers.

Despite himself, he stared around at them in awe. Being on the Atlantic, the East Coast was generally considered a safe zone, but that hadn't stopped the Kaiju from slipping around the tip of South America and slamming New York in the first wave that had taken his mom. And so, as one of the most densely populated coastal cities on the planet which the monsters seemed to have a personal vendetta against, New York had gotten its own Shatterdome to house three Jaegers. But it was the third that caught his attention, and he couldn't help gaping at it. "Is that… Shell Shocker?"

"In the flesh, so to speak," said Takahashi. "Play your cards right, and you just might survive meeting her pilots."

AJ blinked at him. "Huh?"

"You'll understand later." The Marshal flagged down a young woman who was hurrying past, and though her expression clearly indicated that she had places she wanted to be, she fell in to attention. "Yes, Marshall?"

"O'Neil, if you would be so kind as to show our Rookie here the ropes, I would be greatly obliged."

At Takahashi's dry tone, she schooled her expression into one somewhat less put-upon, and shifted the clipboard she was holding to rest more comfortably in the crook of her arm. "Of course, sir." She brushed a strand of red hair out of her eyes. "Come on. Let's get you settled in."

AJ glanced back over his shoulder at Takahashi, who was already striding across the bay to the glassed-in area he could only assume was the LOCCENT, and looked at the - he checked her ID - the Ranger tapping her foot impatiently. "Is he always so…vague?"

Her expression softened a little, and she shrugged. "We're a little unconventional here. You tend to get tight-lipped about things." She held out her hand. "April O'Neil, Communications Officer."

He grinned at her. "Ain't you a little too young and pretty to be an Officer?"

He could have kicked himself a minute later as her expression shuttered. "I'm twenty," she said coldly. "And I've been through more than you have. I know, I've read your file."

Now it was his turn to look offended. "Isn't that private?"

"Not when you're getting access to Shell Shocker's team, it isn't," she said, and with that cryptic statement, she was off, striding across the bay and leaving him scrambling to keep up.

"Wait a second," he called out to her, having to yell to be heard over the din of the Jaeger bay. "What the hell do you mean by—"

His protests ended as he collided with a bulky figure in a leather flight jacket. As he stumbled, biting back a curse, the first thing he noticed was Shell Shocker's logo embroidered proudly on the front of the jacket. But as he stepped back and got a look at the jacket's owner, his breath left him in a rush.

The scales… the three fingers reaching for him…. He let out a screeching cry and grabbed a wrench from a nearby tool table. " _Kaiju!_ " he bellowed in warning as he launched himself at the creature, bringing the wrench down straight at its head.

He was never really sure what happened next. He was vaguely aware of the three-fingered hand grabbing his wrist, and then the world flipped and spun, and he was lying on his back with the air driven from his lungs. As he rolled around, struggling to breathe, the green face of his attacker loomed over him, and blue eyes widened behind a blue mask. A red mask joined the first –  _two_ Kaiju? – and a voice rife with irritation said, "Aw, great. Another one."

 _Wait… they_ talk?

Purple and orange joined the first two, followed by April's face. Her expression of annoyance did little to reassure him.

"Is he dead?" the orange one asked, picking up the wrench AJ had dropped and poking him with it.

"No, I think his head's too thick for that," said April.

"Takahashi sure knows how to pick 'em," said the purple one. "Come on. That gyro isn't gonna calibrate itself."

And then they were gone, leaving AJ sprawled on the floor and wondering if maybe he wouldn't have been better off in jail after all…

* * *

"[Shell Shocker](http://arkycara.tumblr.com/post/78300320022/i-read-fantasiawanderings-pacific-rim-turtles-au)" by arkycara

"Takahashi" by Nicollini


	2. Chapter 2: Angels and Demons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which AJ meets an Angel, and discovers there are more things in heaven and earth than was dreamt of in juvie.

**Chapter 2: Angels and Demons**

* * *

 

It wasn't long before another face filled his field of vision, scathing violet eyes peering at him from a brown face crowned with a riot of hair dyed aggressively purple. "April told me to come finish your tour 'cause she was mad at you and wanted to hit you with a wrench." The girl crouched down next to him, resting her forearms on her knees as she looked him over. "You made some crack about the turtles looking like monsters, didn't you?"

He winced, rubbing the back of his head. "Uh…kinda. I might have called the blue one a kaiju and tried to hit him with the wrench."

She hissed through her teeth, her eyes widening. "You tried to hit  _Leo_  and you're not in the infirmary? I'm impressed. But I guess it could have been worse. You could have tried to hit Raph." She grabbed hold of his wrist and tugged him to his feet.

AJ groaned as the world spun. "Who?"

The girl huffed, rolling her eyes. "Leo wears blue, Mikey wears orange, Donnie wears purple, and Raph wears red. I'm Angel. You're late. Try to keep up."

Reeling, AJ attempted to follow the list of names, and blinked at the girl. "Late for what?"

"Assesment with the Training Marshal," she said. "Duh. You wanna be a Ranger, you gotta pass him first. If he flunks you out, you'll spend the rest of the war as a grunt, no matter what you do to try to make good." She eyed him skeptically. "You  _do_  wanna be a Ranger, right?"

AJ picked his duffel off the ground and slung it over his shoulder. "That's why they sent me here." He shrugged. "Got into a lot of fights in jail." Honesty compelled him to add, "and before jail. They said I could be useful if I channeled all that into fighting kaiju. And found someone unfortunate enough to be drift compatible with."

"That's what I thought," she said. "Come on."

Not waiting to see if he followed, she strode across the Jaeger Bay to one of the side corridors. With a bemused sigh, AJ chased after her. "So why am I training if all three Jaegers already have pilots?"

"One, pilots get hurt and they need backups already in the wings," she said, not breaking stride. "Bruiser Shindig and Quantum Bravo both lost their crews to injury, and there's no telling whether or not they'll be back. Two, if we have good teams ready to go, Takahashi can make the argument to the PPDC for more Jaegers. New York's been hit hard enough already, but since Shell Shocker, none of the kaiju have made land. We'd like to keep it that way." The set of her jaw hardened. "I lost family in the first wave."

"We all lost family in the first wave," AJ said quietly.

She glanced over her shoulder at him, and her expression softened a little. Slackening her pace, she sighed. "I guess so."

AJ drew up alongside her, biting his lip. "So…. I gotta ask."

"What's with the turtles?"

"Yeah." He shrugged at her. "I mean, it explains why they're in the helmets with their visors mirrored on their trading card, but…"

She smiled, even as she shook her head. "Not my story to tell." At his look, she just laughed. "Seriously. It's forbidden. After a broken telephone thing that happened around the base that made them out to be aliens or something, Takahashi made a rule that only he and the Training Marshal were allowed to explain it. So you'll get it from one of them, or not at all." Her smile faded, just a little. "All I can say is that when the first wave hit and the world set aside their differences to fight the kaiju, the guys put themselves on the line to help, knowing that it probably wouldn't end well for them. They did it anyway. The sooner you understand that, the sooner you'll understand  _them_."

She paused at another doorway and ushered him inside. Obligingly, AJ followed her direction, and found himself in the middle of a large room with scuffed and duct-taped padding on the floor. A variety of weapons hung from the walls, and at the far end of the room someone had hung a scroll with something written on it in Japanese.

"Hmm. He's not here. Guess we're  _really_  late." Angel blew a strand of hair out of her eyes. "He's gonna be mad. Dump your bag over there and wait here. I'll see if I can find him."

"Who?" AJ asked, turning to face her again, but she was already on her way out.

"Training Marshal," she called over her shoulder.

AJ's eyes widened. "What, I don't even get to put my stuff away first?"

"No point till we know which section you're stationed in!" her voice drifted back down the corridor. "Stay put!"

He stared after her in disbelief for a moment before he hurled his bag into a corner, whispers of the anger that had gotten him into so much trouble in and out of jail starting to eat at him. They'd given him a shot at hope with this program - a chance to make something worthwhile out of the mess that had become his life. And now that he'd actually made it through basic training, he was facing some kind of test? Typical. They probably had no intention of making him a Ranger at all; they were just looking for a reason to get another grunt on cleaning duty or something. Well, he'd show them. He'd show them all...

_"Hey!"_

AJ turned just in time to see a green fist flying toward his face. He may not have known what to do against... whatever it was that blue turtle had done before, but fists in his face? _That_  was familiar territory. He leaped back, catching the punch with a backswing and retaliating with one of his own. His attacker was fast – scary fast – and AJ had barely enough time to register the outraged eyes burning behind the red mask before he was struggling to survive the next volley.

"Dude—" he grunted as one of the punches connected. "What is your  _problem_?"

"My  _problem?"_ the – AJ still faltered on the word – the  _turtle_  spat. "My  _problem_  is you deciding to clock my brother in the head with a wrench!"

"Well maybe your  _brother_  ought to watch where he's going and not jump out at unsuspecting new guys!" AJ shouted back. Granted, it had been AJ who had run into the other turtle while he'd been busy gawping at the Jaegers, but he was really ticked now – logic had left the building long ago.

"You—you—" The turtle's glare hardened. "That's it. You are going  _down._ "

"Bring it on, green boy," AJ said, bracing himself as he clenched his fists. And as angry as he was, a hint of a smile began to play around the corners of his mouth. Finally, after weeks of confusion and uncertainty, he was back in his happy place.  _This_ was what he was good at. And as he closed with the turtle in red, he let himself go, putting all his rage, and frustration, and, let's face it,  _fear_ , into the fight.

The turtle was good. AJ had to give him that. He was  _really_  good. If the turtle had been using the fancy stuff his brother used, AJ would have been on the ground long ago, but it seemed like Red was just as mad as AJ was, and it was all fists and fury between them, each one giving as good as he got. Until, finally, the turtle proved to be just  _too_  good, and as he forced AJ, back, AJ felt himself tripping over the edge of the mat. That stumble would cost him dearly, he thought, as the turtle's fist filled his field of vision too fast for AJ to block it.

" _Yame!"_

The language was unfamiliar, but the authority in the voice behind him carried enough force that it left no question as to its meaning, and AJ froze despite himself. In a small miracle, so did the turtle, just before his fist met AJ's face, and the expression the turtle wore said clearly that they were both in deep trouble.

He turned, cringing, expecting that he was about to meet the mysterious Training Marshal under less-than-ideal circumstances. His heart sinking, he realized he'd probably just blown his one shot at being a Ranger...

And then all thought left his head entirely at the sight of the enormous rat towering over him.

It was too much. The transfer, and the turtles, and the fight, and now this? Overwhelmed by everything, unable to stop himself, AJ's eyes rolled back in his head, and he fell back into darkness.

* * *

"[Shell Shocker logo](http://theninjathings.tumblr.com/post/56145096145/the-shellshocker-its-sooo-cool-heres)" by theninjathings

"V[ectored Shell Shocker Logo](http://azraelskeith.tumblr.com/post/56220658879/its-vectored-now-to-make-stickers-from)" by azraelskeith

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This incarnation of Angel is based heavily on the Angel developed by Actionkiddy on tumblr, who is well worth checking out.


	3. Chapter 3: Kaiju Signature Rising

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a kaiju attacks, and the pilots are revealed.

**Chapter 3: Kaiju Signature Rising**

* * *

 

_"But I didn't even—"_

_"Enough, Raphael! Go, find your brothers and bring them here. I will deal with you later."_

_"But—"_

_"Do not make me ask again."_

_"…hai, Sensei."_

AJ groaned, raising his hand to his head, wincing as the overhead lights sent spears of pain through his skull. Blinking, he turned toward the shadow looming over him, and was able to take in the face of the rat without fainting again. Then he saw what he'd missed before, and as he took in the Marshall's stars and medals on the giant rat's uniform and realized that  _this_  was Training Marshal Hamato, he groaned again and suddenly wished that he was back to being blissfully unconscious.

"I'm getting sent back to jail, aren't I?"

The rat knelt next to him, regarding him evenly. "Are you injured?"

"Mostly my pride," AJ admitted.

"Then answer me this," Marshall Hamato said. "When you believed my son to be a kaiju, why did you attack him? Most people would have run."

"Because there were a whole bunch of innocent people aro—wait, your  _son?"_

AJ buried his head in his hands. He still didn't have any clue what was going on, but one thing was clear - he'd blown it. He'd absolutely blown it. If he didn't end up back in jail, he'd be cleaning toilets for the rest of his life. No Jaeger. No fighting. Nothing.

"I see." Marshall Hamato raised a hand to stroke his beard thoughtfully. "Takahashi was right about you."

"I know, I—" AJ lowered his hands. "Wait, what?"

Hamato sighed. "I imagine that you have questions. I can answer them, but only if I can be assured that what you learn will not leave this station."

As the magnitude of what the Marshal was saying filtered through his haze of bewilderment, AJ pushed himself to his knees, staring up at the rat. "You're saying that if you can't trust me, I'm never leaving here again." Hamato said nothing in response, but inclined his head. Scrubbing his face with his hands, AJ let out his breath in a huff. "Please," he said quietly. "I'm so confused, I just…" He sighed. "Please. Tell me."

Hamato settled back, and AJ flopped into a cross-legged position. "Can we start with  _how_?" AJ asked plaintively.

Folding his hands in his lap, Hamato nodded. "For most of the world, we have been at war with the Kaiju for over four years now. But for myself and my sons, the war began much earlier. " He let out a long breath. "What the world does not know is that the kaiju are not the enemy. Merely their servants. The creatures responsible for them have had their sights set on our world for much, much longer than that. Nineteen years ago, my sons and I were exposed to an earlier, unstable form of the toxin known today as Kaiju Blue. Its purpose was to aid the creatures native to the other side of the breach in their attempts to terraform our world to suit their own needs. The toxin had… unexpected side effects."

His eyes wide, AJ took in the Marshall's appearance fully for the first time. "It… it did that to you?"

He nodded. "I was not always as you see me now. I was human, once. My name was Hamato Yoshi."

"So….the turtles were your sons?"

"Not at first, no," he said, with a soft chuckle. "They were my pets. Fortunately for us all, they gained human intelligence when the Kaiju Blue fused their DNA with mine. For fifteen years, we lived in hiding beneath the streets of New York, until the year the creatures responsible for our mutation once again revealed themselves." He closed his eyes briefly, shadows of memories playing across his expression. "They call themselves the Kraang. My sons managed to fend them off for a year, but during that time, my sons encountered a creature guarding an underwater base of theirs in the East River that proved… most effective against them." His fists clenched. "We should have been forewarned by that, I suppose. But at the time, it just seemed to be another one of their plans. A challenge to be faced, but easily foiled."

AJ shook his head in disbelief. "You're saying that the turtles fought a kaiju  _before_  the first wave?"

"Not quite a kaiju yet," said a soft voice behind him. AJ turned to see Blue… what had Angel called him? Leo… leaning against the doorframe. "That thing was just a baby compared to what eventually came through."

Hamato nodded. "Indeed. It was not until a year later that the Kraang learned how to turn the divide between two continental plates into a portal to their home dimension, and bring much larger creatures through the breach."

"It's called Dimension X," Leo said, and crossed the room to sit next to the Training Marshal - who was apparently also his father.

AJ rubbed his eyes as the headache began again. "Why have I never heard any of this?"

"Because nobody believed us," Leo said quietly.

He looked up at the turtle and his father, watching as the rat laid a soft hand on his son's shoulder. For the briefest of moments, AJ felt a pang at the gesture, at the easy affection between a father and son that he would have killed for, and there it was, between these two creatures who shouldn't have existed outside of his nightmares.

"When Trespasser attacked San Francisco, we knew that it would not be long before the kaiju spread throughout the oceans. My sons made the difficult decision to emerge from the shadows, to tell the authorities what they knew in the hope that they could save millions of lives."

"And so they put them in a Jaeger," AJ said, eyeing the Shell Shocker logo on Leo's flight jacket.

"No," Hamato said, too quietly. "They put them in cages. In laboratories. Convinced, as you were, that they were kaiju themselves." AJ flinched, feeling in that moment like he wanted nothing more than to sink through the floor. Hamato's grip tightened on his son's shoulder, and Leo's hand drifted up to cover his father's. After a moment, they both let go, but Hamato's voice was steadier as he continued. "After some…experimentation, it was determined that my sons were as native to this world as any other creature, and a decision was made to terminate their existence."

"Fortunately, we had a man on the inside."

The purple one – Donnie – had drifted back in with April, followed closely by the other two. "April's dad's a psychologist who spent some time as a guest of the Kraang."

April made a face at that. "The government was pretty interested in what he had to say, and when  _he_  suggested that they try the guys in a Jaeger…"

"The rest was history," Raph finished bitterly. "We're not good enough to live with them, but we're good enough to die for them."

"Raphael," said Hamato, a note of caution in his voice.

"Hey, we haven't died yet," said the orange one. Mikey.

AJ looked at the insignia on Leo's jacket. A green shell with a lightning bolt superimposed over it, surrounded by a yellow circle. At the four compass points of the circle were small coloured dots – blue in the north, red in the east, orange in the south, and purple in the west. He'd stared at that insignia on the trading cards for years, and always wondered why  _those_  particular colours had been chosen.

"Oh," AJ said, in a small voice.

"Yeah. Oh." Raph snorted. "Master Splinter, why are we wasting time on this goon? He tried to brain Leo."

"Yes, why  _are_  we wasting time on my handpicked candidate, Hamato?"

Raph cringed as Takahashi's voice drifted through the doorway. Marshal Hamato just rose to his feet, tugging his blue uniform jacket back into place. "I see what you mean," was all he said.

Takahashi raised a brow at the other Marshal. "And?"

"There is great anger in him," Hamato said. "It clouds his mind and makes him careless and sloppy. But you were right." He folded his hands behind his back and looked down his muzzle at AJ. "I can work with anger."

AJ stared helplessly from one Marshal to the other. "What does that mean?"

Mikey let out a whoop of laughter. "It means  _I'm_  not gonna get smacked around the most any more!" He bounded across the room, throwing an arm around AJ's neck. "Welcome back to basic training, dude. In about a week, you're gonna wish you were dead."

Raph gaped at him. "You are  _kidding_  me."

"I am  _not,_ " Marshal Hamato snapped, and Raph fell silent again, though if looks could kill, the one he was sending AJ would have left him six feet under.

And then the world came to an end.

Throwing his hands over his ears, AJ stared at the flashing lights on the wall as the klaxons sounded throughout the station. Confused and disoriented, he looked to the others for guidance. He'd been through drills in the fundamental training sessions he'd been given before being sent here, but he didn't even know what his battlestation  _was_ , let alone how to get there.

The turtles, meanwhile, were on their feet, and the little guy was practically bouncing off the walls with barely-leashed energy.

"What gives?" Raph shouted. "The last one was only six weeks ago!"

"I  _told_  you they were gonna start coming every six weeks!" Donnie shouted back.

Takahashi strode over to the wall and punched a button on the intercom. "Hernandez!"

"Sir," came Angel's voice, "the Kaiju made it past the Pacific and Arctic defenses, still clear of the Ten Mile Line. Kaiju signature has passed Newfoundland and appears to be headed straight for us. Estimated time to landfall is shrinking fast."

The Marshall turned, fixing AJ with a pointed look. "You're going to be a Ranger, kid, you'd better see what you're in for. Tag along and try to stay out of their way." He transferred his glare to the turtles as he punched back into the intercom. "Get Shell Shocker ready to drop."

Hamato pointed toward the door way, his face darkly serious. "Go!"

The turtles surged past AJ in a tide of green, April in the middle of them, and a scaled hand caught his arm and dragged him in their wake. And after a moment of disorientation, he was running, a path clearing for them as a synthetic female voice echoed through the halls, counting down to Shell Shocker's drop.

This was it. He was actually going to see the pilots in action. An actual Jaeger drop. Suddenly it was all terribly, terribly real, but though he knew he should be terrified, the energy in the group surrounding him was electric. It flowed through him, pulling him in their slipstream, and there was a freedom in the headlong rush down the hall that he hadn't felt since before his first stint in jail.

A shoulder caught him hard in the side and he staggered as Raph laughed, racing past him. "Try to keep up, goon boy!"

But the hand on his arm steadied him, and he found himself looking into Leo's eyes as he ran. "Thanks," he said. "Uh…sorry about the trying to kill you thing."

"You're not the first," Leo said, and let go of his arm, pulling ahead as Shell Shocker's crew raced into the prep room, the rest of their launch crew already waiting.

AJ hung back, not wanting to get in the way as the crew made the pilots ready, and he looked to Leo and Raph, waiting to see them in action. But as Leo tossed his jacket to Raph, AJ was astonished to see that it wasn't the turtle in red who was getting ready to don the second suit.

It was Mikey.

Both turtles stripped themselves quickly, making themselves ready to receive the streamlined circuitry suits whose artificial synapses would connect them to their Jaeger. AJ had a moment to note the thick metal rivets embedded into their shells just over their shoulders before the suits passed overtop, the rivets poking through precut holes in the circuitry suit as the other crew members began to fasten the sealed polycarbonate shell of the drivesuits' second layer into place. The expercienced crew completed this step in no time, and the outer armoured layer was added overtop, the various pieces screwed tightly into place.

Leo and Mikey exchanged a look, grinning as April and another crew member removed the spinal plates from their trays, special padding protecting the delicate neural connections, and the suits locked the spine plates into place. As that finished, Donnie and Raph were tugging the turtles thinking caps into place and snapping the seals on their brothers' helmets closed as they pulled them on overtop; Mikey was bouncing on his toes as he waited for the synaptic fluid to drain into the suit.

"Mikey," Donnie said, "remember what we talked about—"

"I know, I know," Mikey said impatiently as his faceplate cleared. "Let's  _do this_!"

Raph just stood in front of Leo, placing a hand on either side of his helmet and butting his head against his brother's faceplate. "Bring him home safe, Chief."

"Always do," Leo said, and punched Raph lightly in the shoulder.

"Connections are clear," April called from the door to the Conn-Pod as Angel's voice on the intercom announced that the Marshals were on deck in the LOCCENT and the synthesized voice continued its countdown. "Go, guys, go!"

At her shouted command, Leo and Mikey broke free, racing toward the harnesses that were descending from the roof of the Conn Pod. As the pilots stepped into the motion rig, the foot bolts locked over their boots with jolt that AJ could feel through the deck, and he had a minute to process the strange, minimal back plates of the feedback cradle before the arms of the harness locked over the rivets in their shells and lifted them both into position. Donnie and April raced forward, cabling them into the interface drivers, and ran clear of the Pod as the arm extensors attached themselves to each suit gauntlet.

And then the door swung closed, Donnie and Raph locking the door into position and obscuring the Jaeger pilots from view. "Conn-Pod ready to drop," Donnie called. "Let's get to LOCCENT."

They were off and running again, AJ trailing behind, as the klaxons fell silent and the synthesized voice spoke into the relative quiet.

_Release for drop._

The thunder of the com pod's rapid descent shook the entire floor. As they pounded onto the misson control centre, AJ could hear Mikey's whoops over the intercom.

The turtles and April dispersed; Donnie immediately went to the holographic display at the front, near Marshal Hamato, punching something into the terminal. "Preparing to engage pilot-to-pilot protocol."

Keeping to the outside of the deck, away from the bulk of the chaos, AJ inched his way around the perimeter to the viewing window that dominated the control centre. With a small jolt of surprise, he noticed that though Donnie and April had their own stations, Raph had done the same as AJ, and was glaring at him from the other side of the window.

And then he had eyes for little else as Shell Shocker rolled from her docking station, her feet planted firmly on the massive tank bed that wheeled her toward the bay doors as the reactor turbine in her chest began to spin up into activation. The shell plating on the Jaeger's back gleamed in the lights of the bay, and for the first time, AJ understood why the hexagonal panels in the Conn-Pod stretched all the way around the pod, past the viewing window, in an echo of the masks her pilots had only taken off in order to don their helmets. Masks that Raphael now held clenched in his fist.

The bay doors finished retracting into the walls as Shell Shocker slid neatly onto the launch gantry.

"Ready to align, Marshals," Donnie announced.

"Kaiju signature still tracking in," said April, her gaze riveted on the map display before them. "It's now or never."

"Initiate P-to-P," Takahashi said.

 _Neural handshake initiated,_  the AI announced.  _Neural handshake in T-minus twenty… nineteen…_

The launch platform released, sending a cascading spray of seawater to wash over the decks. Shell Shocker sank to her knees, spray beating against her in waves of foam, as the countdown reached zero. On the displays throughout the deck, holographic images of the turtles' brains flickered to life as the Pons mechanism initiated the drift, and Donnie nodded in satisfaction. "Neural bridge is strong and holding," he announced.

_Right hemisphere….calibrated._

"C'mon Mikey…" Raph whispered.

_Left hemisphere….calibrated._

As the bay doors began to cycle closed, Shell Shocker moved, lifting her arms and dropping them in a pose that spoke of strength, and ferocity, and a world of pain to any kaiju unfortunate enough to cross its path.

"Serously?" he heard Raph murmur. " _That_ 's the kamae you picked? Freaking showoffs. I bet that was Leo."

"Sir! Kaiju signature closing fast!" April called.

Suddenly, there was no more time for wonder. As AJ turned to the map display to watch the red mark of the kaiju signature closing in on the green that was Shell Shocker, all the trading cards, and action figures, and toys the kids played with in the streets meant nothing. This wasn't a game. This was real. And despite everything that had happened that day, AJ found his fists clenching and his breath catching in his throat as the turtle pilots guided their Jaeger toward the fight.

"Give 'em hell, guys," he said under his breath.

He was staring at the displays so hard, he didn't even notice the look Raph turned on him then.

And then the Kaiju struck.

"[Bring him home safe, Chief](http://fivefootoh.tumblr.com/post/57474611655/bring-him-home-safe-chief-from-the-enemy-of)" by fivefootoh

* * *

 


	4. Chapter 4: Kaiju Engaged

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a lot of monster butt is whupped, and the aftermath is less than rosy.

 

 

 

**Chapter 4**

"Kaiju engaged, sirs!" came April's shout, and AJ gave himself over, using the variety of HUDs, pilot cams, and helicopter feeds to piece together what was happening out in the ocean.

The kaiju circled around Shell Shocker, wake from its passing nearly swamping the Jaeger, but she held firm, her stance solid. In the Conn-Pod, Leo and Mikey bore twin expressions of rapt determination, all trace of joviality gone from the little turtle's face.

"Wait for it," Splinter murmured.

"Got a lock on the kaiju," said Angel, checking her readouts. "Category two. But it's huge. Codename: Bladefist."

"Stop  _naming_  them!" Mikey's agonized protest squealed over the commlinks. "That's  _my_  job!"

"We told you, no more names." Donnie snapped. "Not after the whole 'Pizzaface' fiasco." Nudging some of the readouts on his display, he frowned. "Stop thinking about it. You're phasing."

"Focus, Mikey," Leo said softly.

Screaming, the kaiju reared out of the water, and the source of its name became evident. It unfurled four well-muscled arms from its sides, dripping with water and slime; the hands on the ends of each arm, if they could be called hands at all, were tipped with long, gleaming claws the size of the Jaeger's forearm. AJ caught his breath, his fists clenching as Bladefist struck.

But Shell Shocker wasn't there anymore. Faster than he had thought a Jaeger could move, Shell Shocker had ducked out of the way, turning to deliver a kick to the middle of one of the legs that supported the massive body. The joint moved sideways, which was clearly not a direction that the limb was meant to bend, and Bladefist staggered. Shell Shocker moved again, its fist lashing out to make painful contact with the kaiju's face, and the crunch of the silicon bones was audible even over the Conn-Pod relays.

"Take that , you ugly excuse for a monster," Mikey crowed, and even the normally stoic Leo was grinning.

"Rear left arm!" April cried.

Not a second too soon, Shell Shocker's arm lashed out to block the reaping blow of the kaiju's blades. Immediately, the Jaeger disengaged and brought her other fist around, elbow rockets activating to power it into the kaiju. With another scream, the kaiju toppled and disappeared beneath the waves.

Mikey rocked back in his rig, punching a communications channel open. "Did we get it?"

"Too easy," Leo answered, his gaze intent on his HUD.

"I agree, Leonardo," said Marshal Hamato. "Be vigilant my sons. I believe that—"

"It's circling!" April grabbed her mic. "Guys, it's circling around behind you!"

AJ stared at her. That kind of thing took planning. But kaiju weren't that smart…

And yet, sure enough, a moment later, the kaiju erupted from the waves behind them. Had April not shouted her warning, it would have taken them by surprise, and the bladed fists would have closed on the Conn-Pod. As it was, Shell Shocker's left arm was in the way. The talons sank deep into the arm, and Mikey let out a scream of pain that made AJ's blood run cold.

"Mikey," Raphael gasped.

But the pilots were moving. In perfect unison, their right arms lifted, driving Shell Shocker's free fist into the kaiju. It screeched again and let go of the Jaeger, diving beneath the waves.

"Nnnngh," Mikey groaned. "Why does it have to hurt?"

"It minimizes your reaction time when the circuitry suit feeds back Jaeger damage as pain," Donnie supplied helpfully.

Mikey scowled. "You want I should come back there and minimize  _your_  reaction time?"

"Focus, Mikey," Leo said. "You got this. Just breathe through it."

"I can't…. oh. Okay. I got this. I'm good. It doesn't even hurt anymore." Mikey looked over at his brother with a cocky grin. Opposite AJ, Raphael's head snapped toward Donnie with an indecipherable expression on his face. AJ followed his gaze to see that Donnie was frowning at the Pons display. AJ couldn't be sure, but it looked like there was more activity now in the right hemisphere than the left.

But he didn't have long to think about that as Mikey's question drifted over the commlink. "Where did that jerk go?"

April let out a sharp cry. "It's breaking toward the city!"

Takahashi's face took on the aspect of a looming storm, and he stepped toward the main mic. "Gentlemen, do  _not_  let that thing breach the Miracle Mile."

"On it," Leo said. The brothers turned, their legs straining against the hydraulic mechanisms locking in their feet, and Shell Shocker began to move. Slowly at first, her lumbering steps grew quicker, more agile, until the two-hundred-eighty-foot machine was  _racing_  through the waves toward the kaiju that broke the surface in periodic breaches as it moved toward the shore.

"Deploying weaponry," Leo said, one hand punching the command console as Mikey mirrored him on the other side.

From beneath the protective covers just above each hand, two massive lengths of chain unfurled themselves. The one on the right quickly doubled over, locking together into a gleaming, bladed sword edge. But on the left, nothing was happening. The chain continued to dangle loose, and AJ looked back at the figures scattered through LOCCENT. Why was nobody seeing this?

"There's something wrong with the sword on the left," he called out, unable to help himself any longer.

Marshal Hamato just looked at him, and there was something viciously proud lurking behind those deep brown eyes. "No," he said evenly. "There is not."

Bladefist breached again, and Shell Shocker  _spun,_ the chain on the left lashing out and wrapping around the kaiju's throat at precisely the right moment. As the Jaeger came down again, one foot landed on the chain, the weight of the mech's descent yanking the kaiju back toward the Jaeger. And the sword on the right came up to meet it. Striking hard, Shell Shocker drove the blade deep into the back of the kaiju's head, pinning it to the sea floor. The water around the blade smoked and steamed as the heated edge cauterized the wound, containing the kaiju's toxic blood.

"Confirmed kill," April announced, as the blip disappeared from her screens. "Bladefist is dead."

"Kaiju Blue contamination nominal," Angel added.

Around them, cheers erupted from the figures that had been slowly crowding into LOCCENT, and AJ was almost surprised to find his voice one of the loudest among them. The Marshals watched over the controlled chaos, indulging the necessary release of tension for a few minutes, before Takahashi stepped forward and cleared his throat.

"If I might remind you people, we have a damaged Jaeger returning. Get to your positions, everyone." His glare fell on AJ. "Rookie, tag along and observe, but don't get it anyone's way."

"Yes, sir," AJ said quietly.

A moment later, Raphael stormed past, shouldering AJ aside. He staggered, but Angel approached him before he could do anything, gesturing with an incline of her head. "Come on. I'll make sure you don't get into too much trouble. Just stay out of Raph's way. He gets really mad after drops sometimes. I figure it's best not to ask."

They headed out of the command centre in the flow of personnel, though Raph had run on ahead, with Donnie and April together close behind. "Can I ask what the deal is with those two?"

Angel snorted. "Techheads, both of them. Donnie's, like, a super-genius. He's made a whole bunch of tweaks to all our systems and we run better than the Shatterdomes on the Pacific that get all the funding. They're both Rangers too, but they work best in LOCCENT. Donnie's got a knack for keeping his brothers in the drift, and April…" she shrugged. "It's weird. She just, like,  _knows_  what the kaiju are going to do sometimes. So Takahashi and Hamato keep them there."

He rubbed at a bruise on his shoulder. "And Raph?"

"Raph is… Raph," Angel said. "He's a Ranger, but mostly he helps out the Training Marshal. He's tough, and he'll put you through the ringer, but he cares, and you do get better when he works with you." Angel frowned at him. "Look…. Mikey and his brothers, they helped me out of a real tight spot just before the first wave. Since then…. They're like family. Anyone in a Shell Shocker crew jacket? They care about them a lot. So just… any preconceptions you might have? Get rid of them. They're good people. They deserve better than they've been given."

As they reached the docking level, the massive bay doors at the end of the Shatterdome began to open. The door klaxons were drowned out momentarily by the foghorn-like booming of the Jaeger's warning horn. AJ winced, clapping his hands over his ears, and looked at Angel. "I thought that was only supposed to be a warning thing."

"It is," she said, wincing and rubbing her head. "But Mikey…" She shrugged. "Is very Mikey sometimes."

It took some time for the Jaeger to fit itself into the massive gantry that pulled it back across the bay and into its docking station. The secondary gantry locked on to the Conn-Pod, and the cervical assembly released, allowing the gantry to lift the Conn-Pod back into position. April and the two turtles rushed forward, Raph heaving his weight against the heavy locking bolts, and hauled the door open. The orange and blue masks were wrapped tightly around Raphael's wrist now - he'd been winding them slowly around it over the course of the mission. AJ wasn't even sure he was aware he'd been doing it.

The pilots turned, smiling faces meeting their brothers as they began to disengage from the rigs.

"Did you  _see_  that?" Mikey shouted. "We kicked kaiju butt! Were we awesome or were we—"

_Neural Handshake terminated,_  the synthesized voice announced.

"—awesomeeeeaaaahh,  _why does it hurt again?"_  Mikey's right arm flew to cover his left, over the spot where Bladefist had damaged Shell Shocker. The crew rushed forward and several pairs of hands, Angel's included, supported the injured turtle as he limped from the pod, complaining vociferously along the way.

"Just take it easy, Mikey," Angel was soothing as they passed. "We'll get you to the infirmary and get something on that burn."

"Thanks, Angel," Mikey sighed dramatically, draping his uninjured arm over her shoulder. "You're the best. I knew saving your butt from the Purple Dragons was a good idea."

"Yeah, you're full of those," she said, a smile lurking around the corners of her mouth. "Come on, hero. I'll even buy you a pizza."

As the crowd disappeared down the corridor, headed for the infirmary, AJ looked back to offer his congratulations to Leo, and froze. The other pilot was gone, only the repair crews remaining behind in the Conn-Pod. He looked around in bewilderment, but Raph was gone, too, and AJ was pretty sure he hadn't gone with the others.

One of the crewmen caught AJ's expression and snickered. "Yeah, they do that. Better get used to it."

Bemused, AJ started down the corridor after the vanishing crew, but he hadn't taken more than a few steps before something gave him pause. He turned, looking back the other way, and quietly headed in that direction.

It wasn't long before he found where the other two turtles had gone. Leo was still in his drivesuit, though he'd removed his helmet, and Raph had him pinned up against one wall. The other turtle wasn't touching him, but the message behind the fist planted squarely next to Leo's head was clear enough. Leo's head was turned away, refusing to meet Raph's eyes, but Raph didn't seem to care. He wasn't yelling, but somehow the leashed anger in his voice was even worse. AJ stood there, frozen, aware he'd intruded on a moment that he shouldn't, but unable to look away.

"Dammit, Leo,  _talk_ to me!"

"There's nothing to talk about," Leo said. "You told me to bring him back safe. I did. What's the problem?"

"Bring him back safe, Leo, not take his pain on yourself. You can't keep shouldering that kind of neural load."

At that, Leo's head snapped around, finally meeting Raph's gaze, and AJ could feel the heat in it from where he stood.

"He's our baby brother. I'm not just gonna stand there and let him burn," Leo spat, shoving Raph's arm away. He attempted to push past his brother, but Raph was on him, slamming him back against the wall. The shell of the drivesuit met the wall with a crack that made AJ's back ache in sympathy. Leo strained against Raph's arm across his chest, but Raph wasn't budging.

"He's an adult now, for crying out loud!" Raph growled. "Let him grow up and take on his share of it. You don't always have to take everything on yourself."

"I'm the  _leader_ ," Leo snapped. "It's my job—"

"Ugh, you are  _so_  arrogant, you know that? You smug, self-satisfied  _jerk_. You think that you need to be the martyr no matter what situation we're in, but I've got news for you,  _bro_ , you're not that  _special!_  This is  _exactly_ like when—"

Raph broke off, stepping back like he'd been burned. As he did so, AJ could see the thin trail of blood running from one of Leo's nostrils, leaving small red splotches on the green breastplate of the drivesuit.

"Leo—" Raph breathed.

With a sudden surge of strength, Leo shoved his brother away. "You've made your feelings pretty clear," he said quietly, wiping away the blood with the back of his hand. "Mikey needs you. I'll be fine."

Turning his back on Raphael, Leo walked away down the corridor, never once looking back. Raph watched him go, limbs stiff with tension, but he didn't pursue him. Then, all at once, he let out a strangled cry and drew back his fist, slamming it against the concrete wall of the corridor. Again and again he let loose, until the wall and the white tape on his fingers was stained faintly red. Only then did he turn, sliding down the wall and drawing his knees up to his chest, burying his head against them.

In that moment, AJ knew that he'd seen too much. Quietly, without making a sound, he backed away and slipped back down the corridor, leaving the mutant to deal with his demons on his own.

* * *

**PAN-PACIFIC DEFENSE CORPS**

**COMBAT ASSET DOSSIER – JAEGER**

**NAME:** Shell Shocker

* * *

**GENERATION:** Mark III

* * *

**DATE OF SERVICE:** December 27, 2016

* * *

**DATE OF TERMINATION:** n/a

* * *

**RANGER TEAM ASSIGNED**

Leonardo Hamato, Michelangelo Hamato

Auxiliary pilots: Donatello Hamato, Raphael Hamato, April O'Neil

Current base of Operations: New York Shatterdome

* * *

**MISSION HISTORY**

Shell Shocker is credited with three kaiju kills: NY-09 "Bobblehead," New York, December 27, 2016; NY-12 "Pizzaface," New York, May 31, 2017; NY-15 "Kurokappa," Arctic Ocean, October 12, 2017.

**OPERATING SYSTEM**

BLPK 4.1 with liquid circuitry neural pathways

**POWER SYSTEM**

Nuclear vortex turbine

**ARMAMENTS**

I-15 particle dispersal canon, biology aware plasma weapon, forearm mounted (retractable)

S-11 dark matter pulse launcher (internal mount)

CN-03 chain sword, forearm mounted (retractable)

* * *

**NOTES**

Improved reactor shielding installed at the insistence of Donatello Hamato pre-rollout. Despite these precautions, all pilots, primary and auxiliary, are required to maintain a preventative daily dose of Metharocin for the duration of their service in the Pan-Pacific Defense Corps.

Pilots Leonardo Hamato and Michelangelo Hamato are reported to exhibit signs of ghost-drifting. Internal monitoring is strongly recommended.

* * *

"[Leo and Mikey](http://fivefootoh.tumblr.com/post/62395215146/it-was-supposed-to-be-a-quick-sketch-but-it-uh)" by fivefootoh

* * *

"[Kaiju Signature Rising](http://ruslanan.tumblr.com/image/98811969221)" by Ruslanan


	5. Chapter 5: Life in the Shatterdome

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which AJ adjusts to life in the Shatterdome, and learns that trying to win against a trained ninja is a really stupid thing to do, and there's more to all of the Hamatos than meets the eye.

**Chapter 5: Life in the Shatterdome**

The routine that AJ found himself falling into over the next few weeks was the most grueling thing he'd ever done in his life. He ended each day in more pain than any day he'd ever spent in prison. But it was, at least, routine.

It began at 5 am, training with Marshal Hamato before the other Rangers trickled in. The Training Marshal was calm, and patient, and absolutely brutal as he mopped the floor with AJ. Oh, AJ had been cocky for the first few minutes on day one, when Hamato had stood before him and asked AJ to show him his stuff. His bravado had lasted exactly six seconds, which was how long it had taken for AJ to charge across the mat at Hamato, whereupon the Marshal effortlessly sidestepped the attack, did  _something_  with his tail, and AJ ended up flat on his back with the wind knocked out of him. That had been the closest he'd ever gotten to Hamato, and AJ was pretty sure he'd only gotten  _that_  close because the rat was humouring him.

He'd bemoaned it to Angel later, as they sat together in the mess hall, but she'd only laughed and punched him in the arm. "That's because he's a ninja, dumbass."

"What, seriously?" AJ asked.

Angel nodded. "The real deal. So are all the current Rangers." She smiled fondly over at the table where the four turtles and April sat, along with a few techs in Shell Shocker crew jackets. She was over there with them, often as not, though AJ was quietly grateful for the days she took pity on him and joined him for a meal or two – it made his days a lot less lonely. Seemed like most of the base hadn't forgiven him yet for the whole trying-to-kill-Leo thing.

Funnily enough, the only person who really didn't seem to mind it was Leo, although Mikey tended to follow his brother's lead. As long as Leo initiated contact, usually just saying hello, or giving AJ gentle guidance with whatever task he happened to be messing up at the moment, Mikey was almost always right behind with a prank or a teasing remark. But teasing was a language AJ spoke fluently, and he didn't mind it so much. Plus, it reminded him that he wasn't invisible.

When he wasn't in physical training, there was a lot of memorization and studying to do in preparation for his other Ranger duties, which usually fell to April. She'd been outright hostile at first, but over the weeks, she'd thawed to just a mild disdain. Sometimes he could even goad a smile out of her.

They sat in Shell Shocker's bay to do their work, which the team had outfitted for their own comfort long before AJ had joined them. While AJ and April poured over Jaeger schematics and kaiju profiles on April's portable holo display, the boys and Angel were busy playing a game of basketball that seemed to have no rules other than "get the ball in the hoop and don't let anybody else touch it, preferably with ninja moves involved." Which made perfect sense to AJ.

April had queued up the display with a chronological series of kaiju events, starting with footage of Trespasser's attack on San Francisco nearly five years ago. He'd tried to listen – he honestly had – but the game was too distracting. Mikey had taken pity on Angel fairly quickly and teamed up with her, and Donnie had fallen in on that side not long after, which pitted the three of them against Leo and Raph. And the two older brothers were decimating the other three.

Leo and Raph moved like nothing he'd ever seen before. The closest comparison he could come up with was members of an Olympic hockey team. It was like Leo just  _knew_  where Raph was going to be needed most, and the hotheaded bruiser was so attuned to his older brother that a turn of Leo's body, a twitch of his hand - hell, even a  _look_  sometimes – sent Raph into position to either take the ball or put one of the younger ones on the ground. Gone was the brutal punching that Raph had turned on AJ, too. He was still stronger, blockier, and far more of a powerhouse than any of the others, favouring strength over finesse, but he moved with the same eerie grace that all of the others did. At one point, Mikey managed to entangle Raph in one of the dangling chains meant to hold the engine block of one of Shell Shocker's muscle strands when it needed maintenance. As AJ watched, Raph disentangled himself, sent Mikey to the mats, threw Angel into Donnie - who was in the perfect place to catch her because a kick from Leo had just sent him there - and tossed the ball to Leo in a matter of seconds. As the ball went into the basket and Leo landed, Leo's hand was already in place to meet Raph's upraised one.

AJ could only stare. He'd never seen that kind of teamwork before. Which begged one obvious and glaring question.

Before he could ask it, a smack upside his head brought his attention back to April. "Focus, AJ," she snapped at him.

He glared at her, rubbing the back of his head. "I was just—"

"I know," she said, and gave a soft sigh. "I can see it in your face. Just… don't ask."

"But—" AJ's protest was cut off as the basketball collided with his temple. Cursing, he looked over at the turtles. Mikey, Donnie, and Angel looked suitably horrified, Leo just exasperated as he covered his eyes with his hand, and Raph...

"Heads up," the turtle said, crossing his arms with a smug grin on his face.

AJ pitched the ball back at Raphael, hoping to cause at least some damage, but the creep just caught the ball easily and tossed it toward Leo. Muttering under his breath, AJ turned back to April's holo display, and scowled at the look on her face. "I  _hate_  that guy."

"That guy is my brother," she reminded him, the corner of her mouth twitching.

"Well, you're brother's a jerk." His scowl deepened. "Don't you  _dare_  laugh."

"Wouldn't dream of it," she said, fighting back a giggle.

"You laugh and you'll have to have dinner with me to make up for it," he said, a smile taking place of his dark expression. It never worked, but he figured it was worth a shot.

She let out a huff of air, shaking her head as she keyed up the next kaiju on her display. "Raph's right. You really are a goon."

But unlike the other times he'd asked, she hadn't outright said no. Grinning, he focused his attention on the hologram and tried his hardest to actually pay attention this time.

* * *

Yamarashi was the next kaiju to come through the Breach, and it headed straight for Los Angeles. A Mark-3 called Gipsy Danger was deployed to fight it after the first Jaeger sent after the kaiju went down. More than half the Shatterdome personnel gathered in the Jaeger bay to watch the live feed on the launch bay's massive holoscreen, and nobody was more excited than Mikey. He could barely contain himself as Gipsy Danger went toe-to-toe with the kaiju, delivering his own brand of colourful play-by-play as they watched the battle unfold.

"Oh, man, right in the  _face_! That's gotta hurt!" Mikey's grin was almost feral as Gipsy Danger grabbed the kaiju's head and brought it down on the Jaeger's upraised knee. "Oooh! That's gonna leave a mark! Man, the Beckets are  _awesome_!"

"They're not bad," Leo conceded from his vantage point atop Shell Shocker's foot. "More street fighter than ninja, but they've got the arrogant swagger down pat."

"Nothing wrong with street fighter," said Raph. He leaned against an "EXTREME CRUSH HAZARD" warning sign, which depicted a tiny stick man about to be squished by a Jaeger's massive foot and implored its reader to use caution and obey signals inside the bay. "Gets the job done." He folded his arms and nodded at the screen. "See?"

The assembled throng watched in awe as the Jaeger lured the kaiju into the port lands, finally tangling a cargo crane wire around the kaiju's neck and using it to behead the monster.

Mikey squealed out loud as Gipsy Danger's plasma cannon cauterized the bleeding wound to minimize the kaiju blue contamination, though the sound was almost lost beneath the cheering of the Shatterdome personnel. "They have a  _plasma cannon_! Donnie, I want a plasma cannon!" Mikey bounded over to his brother, practically hanging off his neck. "Make me a plasma cannon!"

Donnie cast him an annoyed look as April attempted not to laugh. "Mikey, I made you a cauterizing chain sword-slash-kusarigama."

"And now I want a plasma cannon!"

Rolling his eyes, Donnie sighed in defeat. "Fine! I'll make you a plasma cannon."

"Yes!" Mikey grabbed Donnie's face between his hands and planted a sloppy kiss on his cheek. "You're the best, Donnie!"

"I know," Donnie muttered.

Laughing, April slipped her arm through Donnie's. "Come on. Tendo owes me a favour. I'll get on the line with him and see if we can get Gipsy Danger's weaponry schematics."

"And  _we_  ought to get back to training," Leo said, sliding down Shell Shocker's foot.

"Awww, yeah!" Raph laughed, pounding his fist into his hand. "Back to beating the new guy with a stick."

AJ flinched. "I thought I was supposed to be getting martial arts training with a hanbō."

"You are," said Raph. "I hit you with the stick, it's incentive to get better."

"But—"

Before AJ could finish his hapless protest, a pulsing tone began to echo throughout the launch bay as the AI's smooth voice announced, ' _Shell Shocker, prepare for deployment.'_

Automatically, AJ looked to Leo for explanation. The tone echoing through the base was annoying, but it wasn't the driving, urgent klaxon of a kaiju attack, either. And the Breach had just spat out Yamarashi; there was no way another kaiju was coming through this soon.

"Here we go!" Mikey crowed, darting for the staging area.

Shaking his head, Leo followed at a more sedate pace, motioning for AJ to follow. "If it's a nice day and there's lots of daylight left, Command likes to have us parade the Jaegers through the streets after anybody successfully defends against a kaiju. Good for morale, or something."

"Reminds people what their tax dollars and rationing are going toward," Raph added.

Leo gave Raph a look. "It's nice to be reminded that a Jaeger is only as good as her pilots," he continued, and shoved AJ ahead of him. "Come on. It's good practice assembling the drivesuit without the whole 'imminent danger of death' pressure of a combat drop."

"He gets Mikey," Raph said. "Mikey's squirmy."

"Good idea," Leo said, smirking at AJ. "If you can get Mikey into a drivesuit when he's hyper, you can assemble a drivesuit under any conditions." He tugged off his mask, placing it into Raph's outstretched hand. AJ raised a brow at that, but refrained from commenting.

True to their word, the turtles instructed Shell Shocker's ground crew to let AJ take point on suiting Mikey up, and AJ practically had to sit on him to get him into the drivesuit. The circuitry suit, being one close-fitting piece, was by far the worst, though at least it gave AJ a closer look at the rivets in Mikey's shell. The holes ran clear through the bone just above each shoulder, reinforced with what looked like surgical steel. Part of him wanted to ask about them, but he was pretty focused on keeping himself from giving into the temptation of knocking Mikey out just so that the turtle would hold still for five freaking seconds. By the time he thought about it again, the Conn-pod was on its way to Shell Shocker, and he sure as hell wasn't about to ask Raph. The remaining turtle, who now held both of his brothers' masks, turned and walked out of the room, shoulder-checking AJ into a wall as he passed.

"I hate that guy," AJ muttered under his breath, and he stalked after Raph as the assembled crew members snickered. He followed at a distance, heading toward LOCCENT to see what Shell Shocker was up to as she left the base.

Donnie and April were already there, arguing about plasma drive assemblies with each other and some guy in suspenders and a bowtie on their holodisplay. Angel seemed to be fielding most of the Shell Shocker comm chatter as she bickered with the turtles about the best route to take to get to the impromptu parade. A few newsfeeds popping up around the command centre showed that crowds were already assembling along the streets.

"I'm telling you," Angel insisted. "Last time you went through Battery Park, you caused tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage. Take Bleecker."

"Are you crazy?" Leo said over the commlink. "You have any idea how many flagpoles we knock down on Bleecker? We're taking Canal to Bowery."

AJ tucked himself into a corner, out of the way and on the far side of the room from Raph, watching the surreal argument unfold as the team figured out the best way to maneuver a giant robot through the streets of New York City. "Things you never expected to hear," he murmured.

"Tell me about it."

"Sir." AJ nodded deferentially to Marshal Hamato as the rat appeared next to him. At least the weeks of training had gotten him to stop jumping out of his skin every time the Training Marshal did the ninja thing.

Eventually, the turtles and Angel managed to agree on a clear path to the parade route, and everyone in the LOCCENT settled in to watch the newsfeeds as Shell Shocker paraded past her adoring fans to Times Square. They brought the Jaeger to a halt and exited through the emergency hatch at the top of the Conn-pod, and set the crowds screaming as they slid and leaped down the Jaeger's limbs until they touched ground on the platform where their interviewer waited.

Raph and Donnie watched the display with varying degrees of irritation, but April just looked amused. "Showoffs!" she called over the commlink, answered by laughter from Leo and Mikey over their helmet relays.

"Okay,  _how_  did they learn to do that?" AJ wondered aloud.

"Running the rooftops of the city," Hamato answered quietly. AJ's eyes widened a little, and he resolved to stop asking stupid questions when the Marshal could hear him.

The turtles settled in to the chairs provided for them as the interviewer began to gush. The reporter tried to persuade them to remove their helmets, but they steadfastly refused. "Ruins the mystery," Mikey answered smoothly, to the raucous approval of the ladies in the crowd, if the answering screams were anything to judge by. After the usual standards like "What's it like piloting a Jaeger?", and Leo and Mikey's analysis of the Yamarashi attack, the interviewer turned the mic over to members of the crowd. Which was when things got  _really_ interesting.

Mikey was the obvious the favourite of most of the teenage girls, many of whom had clearly constructed elaborate fantasies to explain why the guys never raised their mirrored visors during interviews, and Mikey fielded them all with surprising sweetness and tact, despite Angel's scathing commentary over the private commlink.

But it was Leo's questions that AJ found the most unusual. AJ raised a brow as a nervous girl in the costume uniform and teal wig appeared on the screen, until April caught the look and called over to him, "it got out during the last interview that Leo loves Space Heroes. The Spaceniks went nuts for it."

AJ couldn't hold back a burst of laughter. "That corny old show?"

"Spacedorks unite," Raph said.

The girl took the microphone in a shaking hand, brushing teal hair out of her eyes with the other. "Um… Leo, I just wanted to say… if you and I were trapped in a cave together like Crankshaw and Virtue, I would  _totally_ tell you my real name."

Donnie and Raph exploded into riotous laughter, falling over each other as April glared and smacked them. "Stop it," she hissed. "That was sweet!"

Meanwhile, AJ grinned as he watched the normally unflappable Leo stammer over a response, assuring the trembling Spacenik that if he was trapped in a cave with her and they were about to run out of air, he would certainly take off his helmet and show her his face – a response that set Donnie and Raph off again, bad enough that Angel got in on the smacking.

* * *

One of the unexpected side effects of the kaiju war was the unreliability of e-mail. With submarine telecom cables being snapped on a regular basis by Jaeger feet, and satellite communication channels prioritized by government and PPDC, snail mail had made a surprising comeback. And as it turned out, Leo and Mikey got a ton of it. Especially after they made tv appearances. AJ, in his role as Shatterdome flunky, found himself waylaid in a corridor by Takahashi, who dumped two massive bundles on him and told him to deliver it to the extremely popular Rangers.

Bemused, AJ stared at the bundles of envelopes as he made his way down the corridor to the officers' quarters. Leo's and Mikey's rooms weren't far from his, but he was surprised to see Leo's door ajar as he approached – Leo tended to guard his privacy. AJ approached the open door cautiously, but it became apparent very quickly that Leo wasn't alone.

He wasn't wearing his uniform. Aside from his dog tags, he wore only the leather gear that he and his brothers wore while training sometimes. He sat on his bed, his hands in his lap as he worried at the tape around his fingers, his gaze downcast. April sat next to him, a hand on his shoulder and a worried expression on her face.

"Come on," she said, shaking his shoulder gently. "You know they mean well."

"Oh, sure," he said softly. "It's not that. It's just... I've wanted to be a hero like Captain Ryan my whole life. And now I  _am,_  and everybody knows it...but I can't ever show my face. Ever. If I was ever  _actually_  trapped in that cave with that girl and took off my helmet..."

Sighing, April wrapped her arms around Leo, raising herself up on her knees so that she could kiss the top of his head. "You're  _my_  hero," she said, just a little fiercely. "With or without the stupid helmet." Leo said nothing in response, but one of his arms slipped around her waist, and he closed his eyes, leaning his head against her chest.

April's gaze drifted across the top of Leo's head and met AJ's. He held up the package of letters and laid it just inside the door, and April nodded imperceptibly, smiling a little in thanks as AJ reached out and tugged the door closed.

He stared at the closed door for a moment longer. Rangers were rock stars; it was common to fantasize about what you'd do if you had that kind of fame and adoration. He'd never considered what it would feel like to know that the single act of taking off your helmet had the potential to turn all that love into hate. He wanted to say that the world was better than that, and would love the turtles anyway for all they'd done to protect the city...but he'd spent too long living in the world. He knew better. At least Leo had a big sister like April to look out for him. A guy could certainly do a lot worse than having a girl like April in his life...

Shaking himself, he moved toward the door across the hall. The throbbing bass was audible from where AJ stood, getting louder as he approached, and knocking yielded no response. It wasn't until AJ hauled back and started kicking the door that the music dropped enough for him to be able to yell, "mail call!"

Immediately, the door swung open and a scaled hand yanked him inside. Mikey was also out of uniform, dancing around the room in his own leather gear, and he kicked the door shut behind AJ. "Dude, did you see me? They _loved_  me out there! Is that stuff from my legions of adoring fans?"

From anyone else, it would have been obnoxious. But Mikey was just so earnestly excited about it as he launched himself onto his bed, bouncing cross-legged in place and looking expectantly up at AJ, that AJ couldn't bring himself to be mad.

"Yeah," AJ said, holding up the package. "Anywhere in particular you want me to leave it?"

"You wanna help me go through it?" Mikey asked, scooting over on the bed. "Angel usually does it. She won't let me read the love letters from anyone older than twelve."

AJ stifled a snort of laughter as he dropped down on the edge of the bed, tugging the elastic off the stack of envelopes. "Seriously? What is with you two?"

Mikey just grinned. "She was the first human friend I made all by myself. We helped her out of a tight spot, and the guys just wanted to leave and never see her again, but I thought different." He hooked a thumb into his belt. "Called it right, too. She's, like, three years younger than me, but she likes to pretend she's a lot older, and she's gotten it into her head that she needs to protect me from my fangirls."

"She's probably right," AJ said as he scanned the contents of one letter with mild shock. He'd thought he'd heard  _everything_  in jail. Apparently, he hadn't.

Mikey rolled his eyes. "If it's one of  _those_ , just make a pile for it. Angel can go over it later and tell me which ones are safe for my delicate constitution." He patted the blanket in front of him. "The safe pile can go here. Bring it on, dude. My public awaits!"

Shaking his head, AJ stuck another letter on the unsafe pile. "Not that one."

"What can I say?" Mikey stretched, lacing his hands together behind his head. "Ladies love the Mikeynator."

"Do me a favour and never ever call yourself that again," said AJ, sticking a letter from an eight-year-old boy into the safe pile, which Mikey grabbed with enthusiasm.

"It's the scars," Mikey said, flexing his free arm. "Chicks dig scars, right?"

AJ eyed the healing burn from the circuitry suit feedback, which dappled Mikey's arm like a strangely technological tattoo. He slowly placed another letter onto the safe pile, thinking about it for a moment before asking, hesitantly, "did you know that Leo's taking the neural load from you when you're hurt?"

Still scanning the letter, Mikey snorted. "I'm in the dude's head. There's not much about him that I  _don't_  know."

Taken aback, AJ blinked. He'd expected a lot more of a reaction than that. He set another letter on the safe pile, frowning a little. "Doesn't it bug you?"

"Course it bugs me," Mikey said, setting the letter he was reading aside and picking up another. "Why wouldn't it?"

"Oh." AJ sorted a few more letters. "Raph seems to think you don't know."

"First of all, what my brother doesn't know could fill a book. Second..." Mikey paused, looking over the top of his letter. "Sometimes my brothers –  _all_  my brothers – forget that I'm twenty years old and that I've spent the last five years on the front line of a war. Sometimes, I let them keep forgetting that, because it helps them function when they have someone to take care of. Drives me crazy sometimes, too. But like I said, I'm in Leo's head. What Raph doesn't think about is that maybe I know why Leo feels like he  _needs_  to take the pain from me. And that maybe  _not_ letting him do it is worse for him in the long run."

He picked up another letter off the bed, and his eyes lit up. "Oh, sweet! Check this out! This girl sent me a drawing of herself fighting kaiju with me!" He squinted at it, laughing a little. "Sheesh. I'm Japanese-American - why do they always make me blond? Her superpowers are pretty wicked, though." He waved the drawing at AJ. The little girl in the crayon drawing was flying around a giant, blond human boy who was vigorously attacking a kaiju. The young artist had also scribbled two thick red lines from her face to the kaiju's head.

"The laser vision is a nice touch," AJ said.

"I know, right?" Mikey bounded to his feet, grabbing a roll of tape from the small standard-issue desk shoved into a corner of the room. "This one goes on the wall!"

Glancing around the room, AJ took in the dozens upon dozens of drawings and letters papering the wall like a massive collage. Almost every one, he noted, was done in the loose, looping scrawls of young kids. Along one of the walls, a series of shelves sported an impressive collection of action figures. Sorting the last letters into the safe and unsafe piles, AJ pushed himself off the bed and wandered over.

"Pretty sweet, huh?"

Mikey's voice came from above, and AJ glanced up to see him in a full split across two parallel pipes that ran along the ceiling as he taped the girl's drawing to one of the few empty spaces overhead. That accomplished, he dropped down next to AJ and reached past him. "Check it out! This is me and Leo!" Holding one of the green-suited action figures in each hand, he put on a deeper voice as he moved the Leo figure. "Be serious and focus Mikey! The fate of the world is at stake!" In his normal voice, he added, "the helmets come off these ones though – they said they couldn't make them permanent because they were working off a variant of the same mold they used for all the others." He plucked the helmet off the Mikey figure and showed it to AJ. "At least they got a Japanese dude's face to go underneath this one though!"

AJ cast an appreciative glance over the collection. "I stuck to trading cards mostly – they didn't go missing as often in jail. But this looks pretty sweet."

"I got 'em all!" Mikey said proudly, reaching for the kaiju figures on the shelf above. "Look, here's Trespasser, and here's Scissure. Oooh, and Pizzaface!" He grabbed the Pizzaface figure, which did appear to have a face full of boils. "That was before they let the Marianas monitors name everything. I liked naming stuff. Leo and I took him down pretty fast." He picked up the massive Shell Shocker toy on the top shelf and mimed a kick at the kaiju.

AJ picked up Trespasser's model, running a finger over the iconic axe shape on its head that had become omnipresent on PPDC propaganda posters. "Doesn't it bug you? That people make toys out of things that you had to kill? Things that almost killed you?"

"Naw." Mikey patted AJ's shoulder. "It's not their fault the Kraang make 'em come here and try to squash us. We just do what we need to do to stop 'em."

There was a quiet beeping from a shell-shaped device sitting half-buried beneath comic books on the desk. Mikey wandered over, pressed a button on it to stop the noise, and opened a tin sitting next to it, swallowing one of the pills within before snapping it closed. He looked down at the Pizzaface action figure in his hand and sighed. "Now I want pizza." Glancing at AJ, he stuck the action figure back on the shelf and gestured toward the door with a jerk of his head. "I'm gonna go to the mess hall and see if Murakami-san's still working. Wanna come?"

Still reeling a little, AJ stared at the turtle. He'd been so sure he'd had Mikey pegged, and in the course of about ten minutes, he'd just turned everything AJ thought he knew about the turtles, about Rangers, and about kaiju on its head. As he stared into the open invitation he saw in Mikey's big blue eyes, he couldn't help smiling in return. "Sure. I got time for pizza."

"Dude, there's  _always_  time for pizza." Mikey grabbed his arm and dragged him from the room. And as AJ drifted along in Michelangelo's wake, listening to a constant barrage of chatter about the mess hall chef and something about pizza gyoza, AJ couldn't help wondering what else he'd always been wrong about.

"[Plasma Cannons!](http://azraelskeith.tumblr.com/post/61654981214/yes-donnie-plasma-cannons-you-did-said-plasma)" by azraelskeith

"[Fanmail part 1: Mikey and Angel](http://nicollini.tumblr.com/post/61658420057/fanmail-this-picture-is-more-pacific)" by nicollini

"[Fanmail part 2: Leo](http://nicollini.tumblr.com/post/61658579622/btw-has-fantasia-confirmed-that-leo-reads-his)" by nicollini

 

* * *

 


	6. Chapter 6: Galas and Groans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which our heroes get fancy while AJ finds ways to use a mop that were likely never intended by its creator.

 

**Chapter 6: Galas and Groans**

* * *

 

"So you see how the style is different in this clip? It's a lot less spontaneous, but there's more…. what's the word?"

"Flow," Donnie said from his seat next to the wall. He didn't even bother looking up, just continued fiddling with the thing in his hands - AJ thought it was part of the control mechanisms for a Jaeger muscle block - a look of intense concentration on his face and his tongue protruding from the corner of his mouth.

"Yeah, that's it," said April. "Flow. You see it?"

AJ frowned at the holoscreen, squinting as if that would help somehow. "Uhhhhh..."

"Oh, for the love of... _seriously?_ " April glared at him. "It's  _completely_ different from when it was Leo and Mikey piloting!"

The heat in the look she gave him was almost,  _almost_  worse than the ones his mother used to give him. "Oh, oh  _sure_. Totally different. So this footage is Leo and Donnie-"

"Leo and  _me!_ " April picked up the weird fan on the floor next to her and whacked him with it, which hurt a  _lot_ more than he was expecting.

"Ow! Geez, what is that thing made of?"

"Iron," she said. "Seriously, AJ, you need to concentrate. This is important stuff here. This was the footage from when Mikey sprained his ankle and Leo and I had to run the simulation."

"I still say I would have made it if Raph's fat head hadn't been in the way," Mikey put in from the far side of the Kwoon - thought the resident Rangers tended to call it the 'dojo' more often than not. He and Leo were in the middle of sparring, and AJ blamed half of his inability to concentrate on them. He was trying to pay attention to April's displays, but watching Leo and Mikey was so much more interesting.

"Hey!" Raph snapped. "You were the one who got the bright idea into your head to jump from the Conn-pod. Don't go blaming me because you were an idiot and didn't look to see if I was standing at the bottom  _where I was supposed to be._ "

"Pssh." Mikey dropped, effortlessly ducking Leo's swing of the hanbō. "You have no flare for the dramatic."

He was looking at Raph when he said it. There was no way he could have seen Leo coming up behind him and bringing the hanbō down on his head. But at exactly the right moment, Mikey's hand shot up, blocking the blow with his own weapon. Only then did he disengage, rolling again to meet Leo's attack.

Watching the two of them was in some ways like watching Leo and Raph during that basketball game… and in some ways, entirely different. Leo and Mikey moved like they were two hands on the same body, one beginning a move and the other finishing it. Where Leo and Raph moved like two complementary cogs in a well-oiled machine, Leo and Mikey flowed like two streams of water coming together.

AJ yelped as April hit him with her fan again. "I'm focusing, I'm focusing! Jeesh." He looked at the new footage on her display. "That one's….. You and Mikey?"

"Leo and Donnie," April sighed. "Parade during Mikey's sprained ankle." She keyed up another recording. "Okay, you  _have_  to be able to get this one."

Tilting his head, AJ watched Shell Shocker engage another Jaeger - which he should have been able to identify at this point, but he wasn't going to admit that he had no idea which one it was - and proceed to wail on the hapless Mark-2 with unrelenting brute force. "Okay," he said. "Blunt, rough, and ugly? That's gotta be Raph."

Another blow landed across AJ's shoulders, but it wasn't from April's fan this time. Letting out a yelp, he looked up into Raph's stormy expression as Mikey laughed from behind his brother.

"Yup," Mikey crowed. "Me and Raph had to go take on Solar Prophet when Leo was…" he glanced at his brother. "Ummm… sick."

But AJ wasn't paying attention to Mikey or April anymore. He struggled to his feet, glowering at Raph. "What is your  _problem_ , man?"

"Oh, really? That 'ugly' crack and you're seriously going to ask me that?" Raph tossed the hanbō he was holding aside and balled his fists. "Bring it on, goon boy!"

"Guys-" Leo began, but he wasn't fast enough. Raph and AJ launched themselves at each other, meeting in a flurry of fists and kicking, and AJ was fairly certain that Raph attempted to bite him a couple of times. Mikey cheered them on as they tussled together on the ground, while Leo and Donnie just sat on the sidelines in resolute defeat. April was busy looking for a pitcher of water to throw on them when a resonant shout brought everything in the room to a halt.

" _Rangers!_ "

Cringing, AJ reluctantly let go of the tails of Raph's mask and looked up to meet Takahashi's stern glower. Hamato stood behind him, one hand over his face as he shook his head in resigned embarrassment. "Sirs," AJ said meekly.

Takahashi glanced over at Hamato. "Pawn to queen's bishop," he said. "I'm afraid the rest will have to wait until I've dealt with these two."

Hamato lowered his hand to regard the brawlers. "Are you certain? I have a rather large supply of suitable punishments."

"No, you did the last ones," Takahashi sighed. "It's my turn."

"Very well." Hamato gestured at the four who weren't about to be condemned. "Come. You four have preparations of your own to make."

The other three turtles and April filed from the room with varying expressions of sympathy and regret on their faces, though AJ was fairly certain they were more for Raph than for him. Splinter left last, with a quiet question in Japanese. Takahashi answered tersely, and from the way Raph almost disappeared into his shell, AJ could guess that whatever it was, it wasn't good.

"Now then," Takahashi said slowly, folding his hands behind his back. "How can I make you miserable for the next several hours, hmmm?"

* * *

Pain. AJ had known pain. Getting checked by the biggest bruiser in school during peewee hockey. Falling off his bike at top speed and losing all the skin from his left leg. Getting the snot pounded out of him during his first couple stints in jail, before he'd learned how to fight back. But nothing,  _nothing_  had ever felt like the pain of being forced to scrub the Shatterdome floors from one end of the base to the other.

Well,  _half_  the base. Takahashi had started Raph on the other end and said something poetic about learning to meet each other halfway. But AJ was sure he'd done more than half already, and Raph was nowhere to be seen. Probably slacking off and letting AJ do all the work, the stupid jerk. Grunting, he scrubbed at a particularly stubborn spot with his mop. The hall outside the officers' quarters was a mess; the bit in front of Mikey's room in particular.

"Why is it sticky?" he muttered, redoubling his efforts.

Before he could permanently scar himself by thinking too hard about that, Leo's door swung open and all three of the other turtles emerged, clad in their drivesuits with the mirrored visors down.

"AJ, dude!" Mikey exclaimed, clapping him on the back; the force of the drivesuit made it feel more like a blow from a hammer than a friendly pat. "Sorry about the mopping. Sucks, dude."

"Yeah," AJ wheezed, gingerly feeling his back for broken ribs. "Thanks, Mikey."

"Serves you right for acting like a brainless oaf. Both of you," April's voice drifted down from behind the wall of turtles, and AJ scowled in her general direction.

"He hit me first!" AJ protested. "Were you even  _in_  the same room? And what the heck is up with all the suits?"

The guys parted as April descended the stairs, and-

April...  _April..._

"Bwuh."

Mikey snorted. "I think that was a compliment."

April's lips pursed in annoyance. "Stop it. Don't be gross."

But AJ's brain had temporarily shorted out. She wasn't in a drivesuit. Or her uniform. Or the sweats she wore when training in the Kwoon. She was in a dress. An  _amazing_ dress. The yellow fabric hung in a gossamer fold over one shoulder, draping down her front in light, airy cascades. The rest of the dress shimmered with beadwork that caught the light, throwing it back at him until he thought he might go blind. She looked... she looked...like a  _girl_.

Sighing, she shook her head, and the hair that hung in loose waves down her back brushed over her bare shoulder despite the gold filigree hairband holding most of it back. "I'm going back and changing into my dress uniform."

"Wait!" Donnie protested. "Let's not be hasty."

"Donnie's right," Leo said, though he elbowed his brother as he said it. "Remember why you picked the dress in the first place."

"...wuh?" AJ said cleverly.

Mikey grabbed AJ around the shoulders, sandwiching him uncomfortably tight against the drivesuit. "We're going to a  _gala_ , dude!"

That was enough to snap him partway out of his stupor. "What the heck is a gala?"

"It's like a party," Mikey explained. "Except snootier and with much lamer music. But people smell a lot nicer."

Leo carefully pried Mikey off of AJ. "They like to trot out the Jaeger pilots for the public every so often. Especially when they're seeking donations from the private sector."

"And when I wear the stupid dress, the guys get a lot less hassle about not showing their faces." Glowering, April folded her arms across her chest. "I have  _words_  about that."

"They'll have to wait," Leo said apologetically, taking April's arm. "We need to pick up Angel and get out of here. We're already late."

"Shame Raph can't come," said Donnie.

"Dude, he'll be lucky if he's finished mopping by the time we have the  _next_  gala," Mikey said. "Have you  _seen_  the size of this place! He's gonna be so mad, too. These things always have the best champagne."

Donnie's head turned sharply toward his brother. "How would you know that? We can't even lift the visors."

"Doesn't matter when you've figured out how to access your liquid nutrition system!" Mikey crowed, bolting down the hall. "Come on, guys! The gala isn't getting any gala-ier!"

"Mikey, wait!" Leo set off after his brother. "You're underage! Get  _back here!_ "

April stumbled as she attempted to pursue, and with a muttered string of curses, she reached down impatiently and hiked the dress up to her knees, setting off after Leo and Mikey with a flash of gold sandals.

Donnie, who was busy watching April instead of where where he was going, tripped with a yelp and went down the last two steps on his face. "I'm okay!" he said in a voice that was as wavery as his knees. Heaving himself back to his feet, he took off after April, leaving AJ alone in the hall with his mop.

He watched where they'd gone for a moment or two before turning and shifting his bucket further down the hall toward the corridor junction. His angry strokes ate up the lengths of floor, and he was several corridors away from the officers' quarters before he realized that he was starting to raise blisters on his hands. Staring at his abused skin, he let out a quiet sigh. It wasn't like he wanted to be invited to any stupid galas anyway. It was just…

He kicked at a bundle of fabric on the floor, figuring that it was something he could take his anger out on that wouldn't get him in trouble after. It flew for a satisfying few feet before landing again with a clank.

_Wait….'clank?'_

He walked over to the fabric and picked it up, turning it over in his hands. It was a bag, with a drawstring around the mouth, and there was something stuck in the laces. Something made of metal. Frowning, he pulled it loose and stared at it, his eyes widening in dawning comprehension.

Dog tags. Bearing the name, "HAMATO, R."

"Crap," he whispered, and took off down the hallway at a run.

He heard it before he rounded the bend in the corridor. The low, familiar thud of fists against flesh. His hand tightened on the mop, his steps quickening until he fairly flew around the bend and came across six large men in PPDC uniforms beating on a solitary shelled figure on the ground.

Without pausing for breath, AJ barrelled into them, swinging the mop around and landing a blow on the head of the nearest one hard enough that he heard a crack. The attacker went down hard, and without waiting to see if the crack had come from the creep's skull or the handle of the mop, he was already swinging it around to meet his next target.

This one was a little quicker on his game, and he reached out to grab at the mop, stopping the blow from connecting. While AJ grappled with him, he caught sight of another out of the corner of his eye, and this one had the telltale gleam of a knife in his hand.

But AJ needn't have worried. Before the knife-wielder could get close, a green foot shot out and landed square in his face. A twist and a well-placed groin kick took care of the one with the mop, and AJ felt the solid weight of a shell land against his back as Raph braced himself to face the other three.

"You really need to rethink your dance partners, man," AJ said, keeping his back against Raph's shell as they circled. The remaining three were slower to close with them after seeing what had happened to their compatriots. "I don't think these guys quite know how to show a lady a good time."

Raph gave a rough laugh. "Yeah, well. They can't all have your charm and refinement. Tell me, which prison finishing school did you go to again?"

One of the remaining attackers darted toward AJ, getting a decent knock in on AJ's head before he went down screaming as the mop handle caught him in the knee and bent it in the opposite direction. "School of Hard Knocks," AJ said.

"Oh, geez," Raph groaned, striking out at the other two attackers who were closing in on him. "That was bad. Like,  _Mikey_ -grade bad." He swung out in a series of moves too fast for AJ to track, but the result was a punch hard enough to crack one attacker's jaw. As that one howled and went down, AJ's mop in the kidneys of the last one brought him to his knees, and Raph's knee in his face finished him off.

They stood like that for a moment longer, back to back, breathing heavily as they surveyed the chaos around them. One of them groaned and stirred from his sprawl on the ground, and AJ's hand clenched on the mop handle. "Stay. Down. You. Creep!" Each word was punctuated with a blow from the mop, and on the last one, the mop finally gave up the ghost and splintered. Tossing away the useless pieces of wood, AJ turned back to Raph. "You okay? Six against one. Hardly seems fair to them."

Raph's mouth twisted into a wry grin, made macabre by the trickle of blood running from his split lip. "Yeah. Well. I never claimed to be nice."

The turtle took a step forward, which turned into a stagger, and Raph went down hard. Cursing, AJ ran for the nearest comm panel and punched the emergency button. As the klaxon began to sound, he made his way back to Raph, grabbing the axe from the fire station on his way. Raph may be a stubborn, pig-headed jerk, but six against one was hardly fair, and if there was one thing AJ couldn't stand, it was bullies. If any of them woke up and thought to mess with Raph again, they were going to have another thing coming.

* * *

Takahashi's tone was conversational. AJ hated that. Whenever Takahashi got conversational, it usually meant that something very, very unpleasant was coming down the pipe. He cringed a little, masking the act with a well-timed flinch away from the nurse who was tending the gash on his head.

"So," Takahashi said, rocking back a little on his heels. "Did you break that one's ribs and puncture his lung before or after he became unconscious?"

AJ glanced over at the row of beds, each of which had a thug shackled to it in varying stages of unconsciousness. The only conscious one was elsewhere, with Marshal Hamato. "Uhhh..."

"That's what I thought." Takahashi rubbed his temples. "I need to have a discussion with you about the use of excessive force, I suppose."

"But there were six of them ganging up on him!" AJ protested. "It wasn't fair!"

Takahashi raised a brow. "Yes. You're very concerned about fair." He rolled his eyes. "There will be a formal reprimand, of course, but I am very, very tempted to let that lecture mysteriously slip my mind."

"I wouldn't tell anyone if you did, sir."

"No," Takahashi said dryly. "I don't suppose you would."

AJ was spared having to answer when Hamato re-entered the room, wiping his hands with a handkerchief. Takahashi met his gaze with a raised brow, and Hamato nodded. "It is as we suspected."

"Wonderful," Takahashi muttered. "As if I didn't have enough problems."

Hamato moved to stand next to Raphael's bed, placing one hand gently on the turtle's head. With a groan, Raph stirred, his eyes fluttering open as he stared up into the rat's concerned face. "Father?" Raph attempted to move, and sagged back with a grunt of pain. "What hit me?"

"Six members of Humans First, it would appear," Hamato answered, stroking Raph's head.

"Oh," Raph said quietly. "Right." Grimacing, he raised a hand, delicately feeling out one of the lacerations on his arm before Hamato swatted his hand away. "It's all coming back to me now." He glanced over at AJ, and the corner of his mouth twisted up into a pained grin. "Thanks."

"Yeah, well," AJ said with a shrug and the ghost of an answering grin. "Can't let you have all the fun."

" _Raph!_ "

Leo's shout echoed through the infirmary, earning him a few shushes from various medical personnel as he raced through the room toward his brother, the others not far behind. They'd shed their helmets but hadn't taken the time to get out of the rest of the drivesuits, so the resulting stampede through the infirmary was a bit on the noisy side. None of them seemed to care, though. Leo took Raph's hand, looking over him with steel creeping into his expression.

"Who did this?"

AJ shivered a little; he wasn't used to hearing Leo sound quite so cold. Raph wasn't fazed by it, just shrugged and gave his brother the usual cocky grin, though it wasn't quite as effective as it usually was given the cuts and bruising on his face. Wincing against the pain, he reached into the pocket of his uniform with his free hand and pulled out three crumpled strips of fabric in orange, purple, and blue. "Usual suspects. I'm fine, Leo. Stop nannying me." He handed the masks to Leo, whose jaw tightened as he took them.

Donatello snorted, looking up from Raph's chart, which he'd snagged from the end of his bed. "'Fine,' huh?"

Raph frowned. "Mikey, throw something at Donnie for me, would you? I'm a little incapacitated right now."

"Oooh," Mikey said, perking up, but Angel's restraining hand held him back. Her face had been as tough and stubborn as it always was when she had entered the room with the others, but as she took in the extent of how badly Raph had been hurt, her lip began to tremble. She crossed her arms defensively, the light fabric of her lavender dress swirling around her as she turned away.

His eyes widening in concern, Mikey stepped forward and placed an arm around her. AJ thought for a minute she was going to protest, but she gave up, turning toward him and resting her head against his shoulder. Mikey's hand drifted up to stroke her hair, careful not to disturb the glittering silver jewelled vines that held back her hair on the non-purple side. It was the absent gesture of a big brother to his little sister, and AJ was struck again by just how close this family was, to each other and to anyone they'd managed to adopt into their eclectic little group. And not for the first time, he felt a pang deep within himself that he shoved away before it could become more than a whisper.

"So," AJ said, "is anyone gonna tell me what 'Humans First' is?" As he found himself the focus of more gazes than he was strictly comfortable with, he shrugged. "I got banged up, too. I'd like to know who to thank for that."

Hamato and Takahashi exchanged another glance, and Takahashi nodded. "He should know what he's getting into," Takahashi said. "You deal with this. I'll go sort out the mountain of paperwork this is going to generate." Glowering over at the unconscious attackers, he laced his hands together behind his back. "I could break another rib just for  _that_."

As Takahashi left, the Hamatos looked at one another and the training Marshal straightened, one hand rising to stroke his beard. "Some time after we came to this place, it became evident that not everyone was satisfied with our arrangement. Our presence here is a tightly guarded secret, but there are many people in the Shatterdome, and our existence is known to some very small circles that reach beyond its walls."

"Humans First being one of those circles?" AJ guessed.

Donnie nodded. "They're not too happy with us. Much like any radical splinter group, they're not terribly organized and don't seem really clear on what their big problem is. It all depends on who you talk to." He placed Raph's chart back on the end of the bed. "Some of them don't mind the fact that we fight for them, but would rather see us in cages when we're not in the Jaeger. Others...just seem to want us dead." He glanced down at Raph, and rested a hand on his brother's knee.

"That time that Raph and Mikey had to run Shell Shocker together," April said quietly. "Leo wasn't just sick. Some members of Humans First poisoned his food."

AJ blinked in shock at the revelation. Okay, he'd known that people could be weird about the turtles - heck, he'd been one of those people - but to try to poison them like they were some kind of vermin? Had they even  _met_  the guys?

"But that's why we've got Murakami-san in the kitchen now," Mikey added helpfully. " _Nothing_  gets past him. And the food's  _way_  better."

"Looks like they've moved on to a more direct approach," Leo said, the ice still in his voice. "How'd they get to you?"

"Six of 'em on Quantum Bravo's ground crew jumped me. Got a bag over my head before I realized they weren't just interested in talking shop." Raph grimaced. "It was sloppy, I know. Got the bag off, but not before they'd started working me over pretty good, and I wasn't doing so hot." His gaze flicked over to the other bed. "Until goon boy over there showed up. He wields a mean mop."

AJ found himself the focus of Leo's attention at that, and though the look Leo turned on him was gratitude, AJ couldn't help finding it a bit intense. He shrugged offhandedly as his cheeks began to warm. "Yeah, well, like I said. Couldn't go letting Raph have all the fun."

Hamato placed a hand on Leo's shoulder. "We shall incorporate this scenario into our training," he said. "But later. Your brother needs his rest now."

"You're good to go, too," AJ's nurse said, returning with an ice pack. "Come back if you feel dizzy or nauseous."

The Hamatos began to file out, each one finding a way to touch Raph before they left, but April paused next to the bed AJ sat on. Even in the unforgiving light of the infirmary, she practically glowed, and she fiddled with the small gold shellshocker logo that hung as a pendant around her neck, precious stones winking from the four colour points as they caught the light.

"Thank you," she said softly. Then, before she could think about it any longer, she darted forward and kissed him on the cheek.

She was gone before he could quite register what had happened, leaving him staring after her in bewilderment. Belatedly, he pushed himself off the bed intending to follow, only to find his feet getting in his way, sending him sprawling forward on his face as he tripped over them.

"Nice," came the dry voice from the bed above him. "Very graceful."

"Shut up, man," AJ muttered, raising a hand to his cheek. Despite the new bruises forming on his already much-abused body, he couldn't help smiling.

* * *

If anything, it was worse the next day. He felt like he'd been tenderized, and a night's sleep had given everything time to stiffen. He was limping as he made his way into the mess hall, accepting his breakfast tray from the blind chef with a new respect after hearing the story of his real reason for being in the Shatterdome. Murakami smiled at him, and there were a few extra pieces of bacon on his tray as AJ made his way gingerly through the hall in search of a table.

But if anything, the gazes turned his way were as hostile as any he'd received since his arrival in the Shatterdome. Or if not hostile, then... wary. He was confused, until he overheard one whisper as he passed a table: "-heard that he caved a guy's skull in with a mop."

_Oh. Right._

Sighing, he hefted his tray and limped toward the exit. He could go eat on one of the maintenance ramps. They were usually empty this time of day.

"Hey! AJ!"

Turning, he looked over at the Hamatos' table to find Angel waving at him from her seat next to Mikey. "Over here," she called.

He raised a brow. The only open seat was next to Raph, who was bruised, bandaged, but very much a solid presence at the table. Raph met his gaze steadily, and the corner of his mouth turned up in a small smile as he reached over and slid his own tray closer, making a space at the end of the table.

"Come on, goon boy. You don't smell  _that_  bad."

AJ stared at him for a moment before he returned the grin and slid into the seat next to him. "Speak for yourself, sewer breath. At least  _I_ know how to bathe."

"Dousing yourself in deodorant doesn't count as bathing," Raph said, flinging a spoonful of egg at him. "You have to wash the filth  _off_  first."

"At least I know how to  _use_  deodorant," AJ retorted, with a return volley of egg.

That was met by a shriek from the other end of the table. "Gross!  _Why is there egg in my hair?_ "

And as the bickering continued, AJ became aware that for the first time since the kaiju had stormed through his old neighbourhood and taken everything away, he was starting to feel something that had been missing for a very, very long time.

The Shatterdome was starting to feel like home.

* * *

"[Gala Gals](http://actionkiddy.tumblr.com/post/63133078074/drew-april-and-angel-in-dresses-based-off-of)" by actionkiddy

(There are more pictures of the gala dresses [here](http://www.pinterest.com/fantasiawanderi/pacific-turtles-fanart/))

[Bash Bros](http://the-french-belphegor.deviantart.com/art/Bash-bros-535946944) by the-french-belphegor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Huge thanks to fivefootoh for designing Angel's gala dress.


	7. Chapter 7: Brain Trust (a flashback)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A small flashback exploring some things that will be important later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This takes place well before the events of our story, but although it helps later to know what's in this flashback, it's not required reading either.

 

 

 

 

**Brain Trust: A prequel**

* * *

 

**_Winter 2016_ **

The wind was cold, biting into her skin as she stood on the roof of the Shatterdome, but she welcomed it. She needed a moment to gather herself. To embrace the silence after the overwhelming noise of the well-wishers inside. Sometimes, it surprised her how many friends she'd made while she and Donnie worked to get Shell Shocker ready to deploy. Friends were something she'd more or less given up on when she'd accepted the guys into her life.

She sighed, wrapping her arms around herself, and her birthday gift — a flight jacket with Mikey's newly-approved Shell Shocker logo proudly emblazoned on the front — kept out the worst of the chill.

They meant well. But in the over three years since the Kraang had strapped her into that machine, sometimes her head started getting very… crowded. She breathed in slowly, letting it go as she tried to figure out where  _April_  began and ended.

"April?"

_Of course it's him_.

Taking another steadying breath, she turned with a smile. "Hey, Donnie. Sorry, I'm not being a very good birthday girl, am I?"

"No, no, I understand," he said, fidgeting a little. "It's just…." He reached into the pocket of his own flight jacket. "There wasn't really the right opportunity to give you this."

Her eyes widened as he pulled out a suspiciously small velvet box and held it out to her. She took it, her hands trembling as she fought against what she suspected was inside. "Donnie, you shouldn't—"

"Please, April," he said, and his voice was taught with nervousness. "Just… open it."

_Donnie, I swear to god, if this is a ring, I'm going to…._

But as the box opened with a little creak, her breath left her in a rush and the thought died unfinished as she stared at what the box contained.

The pendant lay nestled against dark velvet, shining like a small star in the glow of the searchlights that swept the bay for signs of kaiju. It was Mikey's Shell Shocker logo done in miniature, the shell carved of pale jade, each scute lovingly picked out in minute detail. The lightning bolt blazed across the shell in gleaming gold, supporting the golden circle that bore the four coloured gems at the cardinal points, one stone for each turtle.

She ran her fingers over it in mute shock. She had never really been one for jewellery, but this… this was perfect. And it didn't take a genius to figure out who had made it. "Donnie, I—"

"They think that insignia is all about us," he said quietly. "The shell. The colour points. But there's a fifth member of the family in there — Mikey made sure of that. The fifth pilot. The one who looks out for us and keeps the rest of us together." His fingertip brushed against the gold circle, and his dark eyes were solemn as they met hers. "Without you, we'd still be in those cages in that lab. A jacket… it wasn't really enough to say thank you for that."

His earnest face wavered and blurred, and she didn't trust her voice to answer. Instead, she turned her back to him and lifted her hair in silent invitation.

It took him several tries — the tiny clasp wasn't designed for turtle fingers, but he got it in the end. Donnie, after all, had very, very clever hands. And as the tiny shell came to rest just below the hollow of her throat, she let out another long breath and envisioned a wall around her mind, circling it like a protective gold ring.

And suddenly, blissfully, all the voices in her head fell silent.

"Did… did you wanna go back?" Donnie asked hesitantly.

In answer, April let herself lean back, coming to rest against the solid wall of his plastron. He jumped a little at that, and she smiled as she shook her head. "If it's okay, can we just stay here a while?"

After a moment, Donnie cleared his throat, and to his credit, there was only a tiny squeak in his voice when he answered. "Sure thing! You're the birthday girl."

But after that, he was silent, his arms coming around her from behind to keep the cold at bay as she closed her eyes, content in the knowledge that he understood. He was perfectly happy to just let her enjoy the silence. More than anyone else in the world, he understood just how long it had been in coming.

* * *

**_Summer 2017_ **

The cybernetic circuitry of the thinking cap clung to him, and though he knew that the sweat currently pouring down his face wouldn't short it out, he fervently hoped that it would. He wanted something —  _anything —_  to go wrong before this test was allowed to reach its conclusion.

_Drift compatible._  He and April tested off the charts. He knew that. But up until this point, there'd always been something to put it off. He was needed to fix some complex piece of equipment, or April was needed to analyze kaiju movement patterns.

But now Takahashi had put his foot down. Quantum Bravo was just sitting in the bay gathering dust, and they needed another strong team to take the Mark II out. So here he was, wired into the pons next to April and praying for the sky to fall.

_Neural bridge initiation in three…. two…_

There was a flash of light, and klaxons began to scream throughout the Shatterdome. The synthesized voice of the AI aborted the countdown, and began a new pattern.

_Movement detected in the Breach. New York seaboard trajectory confirmed. Shell Shocker, report for drop._

"YES!" Donnie shouted, pumping his fist. Only then did he remember that he wasn't alone, and met the stunned gazes of his family. "Uh… I mean… boo?"

With a whoop, Mikey jumped from his perch on a control panel and darted past. "Leo, my man, we're up, bro! Let's  _dance!_ "

Leo followed Mikey quietly, shaking his head as he passed. Raph was close behind Leo, but paused next to Donnie, and Donatello couldn't help but flinch as the intensity of Raph's gaze met his.

"Get it together, Donnie," Raph said, looking after Leo's retreating back. "We need another team out there. We can't let 'em carry it alone." His expression hardened. "Especially  _him_."

With that, Raph followed after their brothers, leaving Donnie and April to be freed from the circuitry suits by the waiting ground crews. Donnie glanced over at April, meeting her questioning look with a sheepish shrug, but he said nothing.

How could he admit that he was afraid to let the person he was most drift compatible with see what was in his head? And that he was even more afraid to see what was… or wasn't… in hers...

* * *

 

 

"[Brain Trust](http://ruslanan.tumblr.com/post/99243462411/because-of-hapter-brain-trust-of-the-enemy-of)" by ruslanan

"I[maginary Consequences](http://ruslanan.tumblr.com/post/99326039021/imaginary-consequences-of-hapter-brain-trust-of)" by ruslanan


	8. Brooklyn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which some very dark secrets are dragged into the light.

**Chapter 8: Brooklyn**

* * *

 

Several hundred pounds of metal collided with the kaiju's skull, and silicate bone caved beneath the Jaeger's fist with a crunch that fed back through the circuitry suit in a way that was… oddly satisfying.

"Just like punching Jimmy McMillan out in the third grade." AJ grinned in feral satisfaction as the kaiju toppled backward, taking out half the Brooklyn Bridge in the process.

"...and remind me why you did that again?" came Leo's weary voice over the comm.

"He was shaking down kids for their lunch money," AJ said, hauling back on the Jaeger's arm to grab a handful of cabling and yank it free of the bridge. " _Somebody_ had to stop it."

"As fascinating as this tale is," Takahashi broke in, "if it's not  _too_  much trouble, perhaps you might bother yourself with putting a stop to our imminent destruction."

AJ turned his head, the Jaeger obliging by shifting their visual sensors enough to see the kaiju hightailing it toward the city. "Oh. Right." He whipped the cable, the lash drawing a deep score across the kaiju's back, and it shrieked again as it scrambled away, trailing a stream of blue blood behind it. Frowning, he turned to his copilot. "Why didn't you say something?"

"You're the one on the right," Mikey pointed out as he scanned the display in front of him. "I'm just here to make sure you don't turn your brain into a puddle of goo."

AJ ground his teeth as they turned the Jaeger, picking up speed as they pursued the fleeing kaiju onto land. AJ attempted to use his bridge-cable whip again, but the rents he opened in the kaiju's skin didn't even slow it down. "Damn, that thing is stubborn."

"Reminds me of someone," Raph and April chorused together.

"Shut up. Both of you." AJ's frown deepened as the kaiju stomped across the beach, across the boardwalk, and straight through a fence into Coney Island.

"Aw, man, the  _ferris wheel_!" Mikey squeaked. "Dude, I wanted to ride that someday!"

"Wait…." The Jaeger slowed as AJ scanned the readouts. "Where did it go?" He glanced across the Conn Pod at Mikey. "Where the  _heck_  did it go?"

"I dunno, dude, they do that. You gotta watch 'em. They're surprisingly sneaky for mutants that big." Mikey prodded a few buttons on his console. "Oh, hey, it's taking the parkway."

"Crud," AJ yelped. Throwing himself against the harness, he strained to get the Jaeger moving after the kaiju as it fled up Ocean Parkway, scattering cars as it ran and leaving a trail of green as it demolished the trees on the median. In his haste, AJ canted the Jaeger a little too far to the right, and the gyroscopic alarms screamed in warning as the Jaeger's elbow went through a block of apartments. "Sorry!" he called.

The kaiju veered into an oasis of green in the middle of the concrete, and AJ sent the Jaeger in pursuit as the kaiju peeled through Prospect Park. Putting on a final burst of speed, they closed with the kaiju and collided in a spray of blue kaiju blood.

"Oh, you like that?" AJ hauled back and hit it again as the monster shrieked. "Doesn't feel so good when you're on that end, does it?" Again and again, he punched, the air turning blue as the kaiju's blood misted around them.

"Uhhh, dude?" Mikey said.

"You've had your turn," AJ growled, turning to glare at Mikey. "This is  _my_  turn."

Mikey's eyes widened and he shrugged into the feedback cradle. "Okay. Have at it."

AJ turned back, rage welling at the back of his throat like dark smoke. He hauled back, grunting as one of the Jaeger's feet drilled into the kaiju's side, but though the monster thrashed on the grass in front of him, it wasn't really the monster he was seeing. It was the faces of the people he'd passed in his headlong rush to find his mother. The faces on the monument that still stood in the city not far from where they fought now.

"This is  _personal_ ," he spat.

The kaiju made one last break for it, splashing through the waters of the lake, but AJ was ready. One of the Jaeger's massive hands shot out, seizing a clawed arm and ripping it from the kaiju's body. Screaming, the monster staggered through the trees, trailing blood in streams now as the Jaeger pursued. The other arm and the tail didn't last much longer, and as soon as the monster reached Grand Army Plaza, AJ was ready for it. The Jaeger's hands closed on the monster's skull, and as its head parted from its body, the carcass staggered backward, crashing into the Triumphal arch and bringing it down in pieces around the kaiju's corpse.

 _Kaiju signature terminated_ , the AI stated.

"Yeah!" AJ pumped his fist. "Take  _that_! Who's awesome now?"

_Calculating casualty count… please stand by._

Still grinning, AJ looked at Mikey. "Aw, come on, man, why aren't you celebrating? We totally killed that thing."

"Yup," Mikey said, looking at his console. "It's dead all right."

_Casualty analysis completed. Casualty count: Brooklyn._

AJ's eyes widened. "Wait, what?"

The Conn Pod dissolved around him, revealing Takahashi's face looming alarmingly close to his as AJ dangled helplessly from the simulator harness. "Congratulations, Rookie," Takahashi said dryly. "You just killed all of Brooklyn."

"But-" AJ looked in stunned shock at the turtles arrayed across the simulation chamber behind Takahashi.

"You didn't use  _one_  cauterizing weapon," Donnie said, checking off a play-by-play on a tablet he held. "The kaiju blue contamination is off the charts." He raised a brow. "In fact, I think this might be a record."

"Not to mention, the plan was to herd the thing toward Staten Island," Leo added. "Which was evacuated."

"Brooklyn, not so much," said Raph.

"I didn't…" AJ whispered. "I wasn't…."

"Thinking?" Takahashi said. "I know. You made an awful mess. Fortunately, by the time you make it anywhere near a real Jaeger, you're going to be very good at cleaning them up." From behind his back, he withdrew the mop he had been holding, waving it in AJ's face with a smile that bordered on the sadistic, and AJ sagged back into the feedback cradle with a groan.

Around them, the AI's voice sounded almost hopeful as it helpfully inquired,

_Would you like to try again?_

* * *

"Yeah, I'd like to try again," AJ muttered under his breath, jabbing at a stain on the floor with perhaps more violence than was strictly necessary and drenching himself with mop water for his troubles. "Like to try showing Takahashi's smug face just how much I can actually _do_."

He straightened, placing a hand at the small of his back as he winced in pain. He'd made it to the officers' quarters, at least. Half the Shatterdome down, but this time he didn't have Raph picking up the slack on the other half. Frowning, he scowled down at the water in the bucket. He still didn't get that guy. One minute he was actually being halfway decent since the whole AJ-saving-his-life thing, and the next they were back to fighting like cats and dogs. Or whatever the equivalent was with turtles.

Although AJ had to admit, the fighting was pretty much the only time he wasn't bored.

Sighing, he dunked the mop back in its bucket. He'd screwed up, he could admit that much. If he was being honest with himself, he'd thought that if  _Mikey_ could do it, he'd be able to pilot the Jaeger like a pro. Impress Takahashi, get assigned to Quantum Bravo…. Instead, he'd killed Brooklyn. And gained a whole new respect for Mikey in the process. The turtle had tried to tell AJ he was screwing up, but AJ hadn't listened.

_Thick head strikes again, Ma. If you were here, I'd even let you smack it._

AJ leaned against his mop with a groan. It was times like this he really missed-

He hadn't heard anything, but a metallic crash suddenly rang through the hall as Mikey's door slammed open and the turtle all but tumbled down the steps, shaking a blanket off his foot as he ran. He wasn't wearing anything but his dog tags, and AJ had been training with the guys long enough to know that it was really odd for any of them - even Mikey - to fail to notice him standing just a few feet away. But Mikey's eyes were wide, his breath coming rapidly, and he had eyes only for Leo's door. He'd just reached it when Leo's cry, muffled by the thick steel, echoed through the hall.

With a look of dark determination on his face, Mikey yanked his brother's door open and darted inside, and Leo's shout cut off abruptly. Letting the mop fall where it was, AJ dashed down the hall, coming up short at Leo's door.

Mikey sat perched on the tangle of blankets surrounding his brother as Leo clung to him, burying his head in Mikey's shoulder. "Cleansing breaths, Leo," Mikey was murmuring as he stroked his brother's head. "Breathe through it, man. Be in the now. We're here. We're okay. You got us out, bro. You did it."

AJ may have been a thick-headed idiot who accidentally eradicated Brooklyn, but he knew when he was intruding on something that wasn't meant to be seen. He reached out to tug the door closed, and for the briefest of moments, he was aware of Mikey's blue eyes coming to rest on him.

Then the door was closed, and AJ leaned against it, feeling like he'd just run a marathon. There were questions in his head - too many questions - and he wasn't sure he wanted to know the answers. First and foremost, how the  _hell_  had Mikey known Leo was having the nightmare? AJ had been closer to Leo's door than Mikey was, and until Mikey had reached Leo's door, AJ hadn't heard a damn thing.

Sighing, AJ walked back to where the mop had fallen and plucked it up off the ground. The floor wasn't going to clean itself. And if it helped him keep an eye on the turtles' doors, well, that was between him and the mop.

* * *

Pain blossomed across his back as the hanbō struck him squarely between the shoulders. With a cry, he went down on his knees, turning to glare over his shoulder. " _Geez_ , man, save it for the kaiju, will ya?"

"Awww, whatsa matter?" Raph taunted. "Did I forget to use a feather pillow?" Raph's hanbō whirled, but this time AJ was ready. Bringing up his own stick, he threw out every ounce of training Leo and Marshal Hamato had attempted to beat into him, and started wailing on Raph like he was in the middle of a hockey brawl. Raph, for his part, could have dumped him straight on his butt with the fancy ninja stuff and not even broken a sweat, but the turtle settled for plouging his head straight into AJ's stomach. AJ wheezed, smacking Raph's shell repeatedly with the stick, his feet flailing to find their mark on Raph's shins as the turtle wrapped his arms around AJ in an attempt to take him to the ground—

And then down was up and up was down, and AJ found himself flat on his back staring up at Leo, who had one foot planted squarely on AJ's chest, one hand pinning Raph's arm behind his back, and a look on his face that said he was utterly done.

"Guys," Leo said wearily, "if you're not going to take this seriously, there are other people who'd like to use this room."

"Killjoy," Raph muttered under his breath.

Leo's mouth pursed in irritation, and he dragged up on Raph's arm. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch that."

"Aaah!" Raph winced, going up on his toes. "Okay, okay, I give. I'll do it the boring way."

A grin touched Leo's expression, and for a moment, AJ was looking at something new. A hint of mischief and teasing normally absent from the stoic Ranger. Something old between Leo and Raph that AJ had never really seen before. But the moment broke as Angel burst into the room.

"Leo," she said, her voice coming in short gasps. "There's a comm for you."

Leo looked over at her, a brow raising. "I'm kinda busy here, Angel. Can't one of the Marshals take it?"

Angel shook her head vigorously, the purple sections of her hair sweeping across her face. "It's Tokyo. It's  _her._ "

At that, every single person in the room froze, turning to stare at Leo. He, too, remained still for a minute, his expression a truly bizarre mix of distaste, joy, and pain. Then Leo's foot was off AJ's chest as he followed Angel out of the room. The other turtles and April glanced at each other quickly, and AJ found himself once again swept out on a tide of green, Mikey's hand locked around his collar.

AJ's footsteps were the only ones that sounded in the corridor, the others having switched over into that creepy ninja thing they did, earning him an aggrieved look from Mikey. " _Shh!_  Quiet, dude, seriously. You're moving like a herniated hippo."

"You've been spending too long in Leo's head," Raph muttered as he passed. Mikey just stuck his tongue out at him and continued to tow AJ in his wake.

They came to a halt by an unmarked door, setting up an incredibly un-stealthy perimeter, casting furtive glances to either side as Donnie bent and did something to the locking pad. A few seconds later, the thud of the locking bolts releasing echoed through the hall and Raph dragged the door open, ushering the others inside before following them and pulling the door closed behind him.

"Whoa," AJ breathed, glancing around at the glowing collection of screens lining the walls. "So this isn't creepy at all."

"Shh!" Donnie hissed, throwing himself into a wheeled chair and skidding across to a screen in the corner. His tongue sticking out as he squinted at the screen in intense concentration, he hit a few keys and the screen split, showing Leo on one side, and a Japanese woman on the other. Her hair was short, cut around chin length in the style favoured by a lot of female pilots because it fit easily under the helmet, with sections of it dyed a now-faded blond in a way that thumbed its nose at regulation while still conforming to it. There was a pinched look to her that AJ recognized all too well from his time in jail; she didn't look to be much older than him, but whatever she'd seen in her life had done a number on her. Neither one of them seemed to be particularly happy to see the other, and on the screen, Leo was listening with his arms folded and a shuttered look on his face.

"It's broken, Donnie, I can't hear anything!" Raph punched his brother on the shoulder, earning him a withering glare for his troubles.

"Give me a second! I have to hack the audio on a separate channel to avoid the security sensors."

AJ rubbed the bridge of his nose and looked down at Mikey. "Okay, I get that this is something big. But who the heck is the angry lady and why do we care?"

Mikey groaned softly and rolled his eyes. "Aw, man, where do we start? Okay, do you know about the Foot clan?"

"Weird guys in black pyjamas who started shaking down the locals downtown just before the kaiju hit?"

"Right!" Mikey exclaimed, earning him a chorus of shushing before he continued in a quieter tone. "Okay, so their big bad boss was this dude called Shredder. Total jerkface, had it out for Splinter big-time. Karai—" he inclined his head toward the screen "-was his daughter, and Leo was  _totally_  hot for her. She was cool for a bit, and then she tried to kill Leo and kidnapped April and wasn't so cool." He leaned against a wall, watching with a furrow between his brows as Leo started responding. There was no audio yet, but Leo clearly wasn't happy. "Takahashi was pretty high up in the Foot, too. Born and raised in the clan, didn't much like Shredder's whole blah-blah-vengeance-blah thing, but he went along with it." A small, proud smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "That's how Takahashi got the scar next to his ear, by the way. He went up against Leo once. Dude regretted  _that_ , big-time."

"Wait," AJ whispered, "so you and Takahashi were, like, enemies or something?"

Shifting a little closer, Mikey shrugged. "He didn't really care about us one way or the other, he was just following orders, and Shredder's orders were to terminate us with extreme prejudice. All that changed when the kaiju made land, though. Shredder was so focused on attacking us that he refused to get to safety, which is when Takahashi had enough and split. Which was probably for the best, since that was right before Shredder got flattened." He sighed. "Karai took it bad and went kinda crazy, and then there was the whole  _lab_  thing." Mikey shuddered, rubbing his arms. "And then when they realized the Kraang had it in for NYC, Takahashi was the one who actually listened when Mr. O'Neil went to him and said that we might be able to help. Turns out the Foot had planted Takahashi as a spy in the military and he went legit after he quit and switched to the PPDC - not that we knew that at the time. That came out later. So me and Leo got Shell Shocker, but they had trouble finding pilots that worked for Quantum Bravo - this is back before Bruiser Shindig's team went loco and had to go on permanent vacation."

AJ's head was swimming a little as Mikey's narrative bounced around to whatever he considered the most interesting thing at the time, and he rubbed at his temples. "So where's  _she_  come in?" He jerked his head toward the screen. "Clearly, she didn't stay crazy."

"That's debatable." Mikey frowned. "Takahashi went away one day and came back with her. Nobody knows where he found her, and she was pretty messed up, but we needed pilots, and all the psych tests said that she and Leo were drift compatible. Like,  _seriously_ compatible."

"Seriously?" AJ raised a brow at the obvious discomfort between the two silent figures arguing on the screen. "So what happened?"

"They were awesome," Mikey admitted. "But they only ever drifted once. As soon as they got out of the Conn Pod, they locked themselves in a room with Splinter and didn't come out for hours. And then Karai got transferred to the Tokyo Shatterdome and Leo and Splinter never talk about it."

AJ glanced at him. "Aren't you in his head, like, all the time?"

Mikey's mouth twitched into a grin, but there was a thread of hurt beneath the brightness. "You only share what the other person is thinking about when you drift, and Leo… dude's like an onion, man. He got  _layers_." Mikey made a frame with his fingers and made a show of peering through it. "I see a lot of what's in his head, and there's some messed up stuff in there, but if there's something he  _really_  doesn't want to think about, he jams it deep and you ain't  _never_  gonna see that, no matter how long you drift with him." He shrugged again. "And he never dreams about it, so I got nothing. Wouldn't tell if I did, though. Wouldn't be cool."

"S'cool," AJ said with a shrug. "Jaeger code or something?"

"Or something," Mikey agreed, punching AJ lightly in the shoulder. "You know, you're not as much of a goon as Raph says you are."

"Hey!" AJ snapped, earning him another chorus of shushing.

Then Donnie gave a triumphant cry, and the others fell silent as audio flooded the cramped room.

"—you are such a stubborn, pig-headed jerk, Leo, you always were," the woman - Karai - was in the middle of yelling, and Raph rolled his eyes.

"Well, _she_  hasn't changed." Raph smirked. "Got Leo pegged though."

April smacked him at that, and he shoved at her, but shut up as Leo uncrossed his arms, throwing them up in frustration.

"What do you expect, Karai? All this time, you don't write, you don't say a  _word_ , and now you bring me  _this?_ "

"I had to warn you," she snapped. "Whatever else… it didn't seem right, and the Kraang… not much fun to be had if there's no planet left, y'know…" She trailed off with a muttered Japanese oath, and when she looked back into the camera, there was a softening of the harsh lines of her face. She looked almost vulnerable as she bit her lip. "How… how is he? Does he ever…" she trailed off again, hugging her arms around herself with a noise of frustrated defeat.

"How do you think he is?" Leo said, and his voice was weary. "M—"

" _Don't_!"she snapped, her voice taut with anger and fear. "Don't you  _dare_  call me that."

"Fine," Leo said. "You know what? Fine. I'm done trying to figure this mess out on my own. You wanna meet me halfway, give me another call, but until then _..._ " he groaned, rubbing his hands. "Have fun in Tokyo." He turned away, reaching out to end the signal.

"Leo?"

Pausing hallway to the controls, he glanced up at the display. "Yeah?"

She was silent for a brief moment, doubt playing across her features, before she offered a smile. There was hurt and bitterness in it, but it was a smile just the same. "Be careful."

And when Leo reached for the controls again, there was a matching look on his face. "You too."

The screens went dark.

There was a quiet moment in the little storage cupboard before Raph reached out and smacked Donnie upside the head. "You couldn't get the audio sooner?"

"You wanna try your hand at it next time?" Donnie snapped back.

April moved between them, drawing her tessen and whapping them both across the shells with one smooth movement. AJ raised a brow in admiration. He still had no idea where she kept that thing. "Knock it off, you two," she said, and glanced over at Mikey. "Any of that make sense to you?"

Mikey shook his head. "Sorry, sis. I got nothing."

"Okay." She pinched the bridge of her nose between two fingers. "Okay. Something about this feels nasty, so I say we stick close by Leo for the next little while. Agreed?"

The others muttered varying words of accordance until Mikey's jacket pocket started beeping. He pulled the phone out of it, glancing down at the display in resignation as he silenced the alarm.. "Med time," he said, looking up at the others.

Raph slung an arm around his brother's shoulders, nudging AJ aside as he did so. "Come on. Let's see if Murakami can make you a milkshake to wash it down."

"With pizza?" Mikey added hopefully as they pushed the door open.

"Don't push your luck, bro."

As the two left, AJ glanced over at April with a look that he hoped was charming. "So can I get  _you_  a milkshake?"

Donnie glared at him as he rose to his feet. "She's lactose intolerant," he said.

"No I'm not." April elbowed Donnie playfully in the gut. "But I can get my own milkshake, thanks." But she grinned at him as she passed, and said, quietly, "it was sweet of you to offer, though."

Shaking his head, AJ followed her and Donnie into the hall, pulling the door closed as he went.

* * *

True to what the others had predicted, Leo didn't say a word about his conversation with Karai, and they couldn't very well question him about whatever she had warned him about without letting him know they'd been eavesdropping, so they'd been travelling around in a tidy little clump. The guys had produced a bunch of ninja weapons from somewhere and had taken to carrying them around at all times - though nobody else in the Shatterdome seemed to find that weird - and even AJ had started keeping his hanbō with him, seeing as he wanted to avoid mops whenever he could. Leo, for his part, seemed determined to proceed as though nothing was out of the ordinary, but as the days dragged on and nothing happened, everyone seemed to relax a little.

In a rare moment of downtime, they'd gathered in the lee of Shell Shocker's massive bulk, taking the time to tend to the little tasks that slipped away from them during the course of a regular week. Leo and Mikey sat with Angel on one of Shell Shocker's feet, working on responses to their fan mail. April and Donnie were perched on the bed of a truck nearby, hunched over a computer and arguing quietly about something that sounded like it was going to make his brain hurt if he listened too closely. Since AJ had actually been making progress in the simulator and didn't actually have to clean anything for once, he'd managed to get dragged in by Raph to work on the strangest looking bike AJ had ever seen. But once it had come out that he'd taken auto shop in jail, he hadn't had much of a choice.

And truth be told, he was awfully fond of bikes.

"Well, the V-twin is definitely old." AJ knelt next to Raph and examined the engine. "But the design is a classic. Looks like there's a problem with the piston here—" he prodded at it "—but nothing a new connecting rod can't fix if the crankshaft is still in one piece."

"Geesh, I don't need the manual," Raph groaned, hitting him with a shoulder. "Just make the thing  _go_. Seriously, you're starting to sound like the dork twins over there."

Donnie looked up at that, already irritated by whatever he and April were working on. "Hey!"

April just patted his arm. "Don't listen to them. Come on, let's go get on the horn to Berlin so you can tell Gottlieb why he's wrong about his Breach model. Geiszler's already not speaking to you; we may as well make it two for two."

Donnie blinked, and shut down the display as a soft smile stole across his face. "Aww, April. You always know how to cheer me up."

"Oh, kill me now," Raph muttered under his breath.

April ignored him, tossing her hair as she poked Donnie's side with a finger. "Watch it, slick. You're getting predictable." Grinning, she jumped down from the truck bed.

Because he was watching her, AJ saw the moment that shock blossomed across her face. As if in slow motion, he could see her lose control of the fall, see how she wasn't going to hit clean, and he was so far away, there was nothing he could do about it-

-but Donnie was watching her, too. Before she could hit, he was already on the ground next to her, his arms supporting her as she staggered. "April," he said, the worry in his tone attracting the attention of everyone else. "What is it?"

Her face was whiter than AJ had ever seen it as she gripped his arm, and she looked up at him with a fear in her eyes that AJ hadn't thought the redhead was even capable of. "It's  _him_."

Everyone else exchanged a look of horror. AJ just looked at Raph. "Who?"

"We don't say his name," Raph said quietly, looking up at Leo. Angel and Mikey were doing the same; Leo had gone very, very still. Scary still.

"But-" AJ began.

"Never." Raph glanced at him, and AJ immediately shut up. That kind of anxiety wasn't something he was used to seeing on Raph's face. "Seriously. It makes Leo freak. He can't help it, it's something they did to him…"

Raph's words died in his throat as Leo rose to his feet, gathering himself like a storm on the horizon. Leo was cold - colder than AJ had ever seen him - and all of it was focused on the doors to the Jaeger bay, where a man stood staring back at Leo.

Everything about the man screamed "government," from his perfect suit to the dark glasses that hid his eyes, and the uneasy feeling forming in the pit of AJ's stomach was made worse by the fact that Takahashi entered the bay at a run, coming to a halt in front of the stranger in as close to a state of disarray as the Marshal was probably physically capable of being in.

"Well," Takahashi said, straightening his uniform jacket. "It's been a while. To what do we owe this pleasure?"

"You know why I'm here, Takahashi," the suit growled, and AJ shuddered. The guy's voice was glacial. Reptilian, almost, which was saying something given that AJ spent most of his time hanging out with a bunch of turtles. But something about this guy made AJ's hackles rise, and it wasn't the fact that his suit cost enough to feed half the old neighbourhood for a month. There'd been some good people back in jail who'd genuinely wanted to help AJ get straightened out… and then there'd been people like this suit. People AJ learned to avoid, if he knew what was good for him.

The suit wasn't even looking at the guys. He was looking at a folder in his hand that he brandished at Takahashi. "You said you'd keep them under control. You said they wouldn't endanger the populace. But here I have reports of them hospitalizing and nearly killing six civilians."

"I wouldn't go that far," Takahashi said lightly. "And those 'civilians'did happen to be members of a terrorist organization."

"The organization to which those civilians belong is merely focused on ensuring that the kaiju threat does not reach the human population. Something I would think you would appreciate, not condemn." The suit looked down at the file. "Broken limbs? Dislocations? Concussions? Punctured lungs?" His thin lip curled in disgust. "How much more are these animals responsible for?"

Anger began to thread its red tendrils through AJ's gut, and he stepped forward. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Raph making a grab for him, but he'd been training with the turtle long enough to sidestep it. "Actually, half of that was me."

Instantly, AJ realized he'd made a mistake. If the look of alarm on Takahashi's face wasn't enough, the expression on the suit's face as he rounded on AJ more than covered for it. There was something tangible in the force of the man's glare that washed over AJ like a cold slime, and he was suddenly grateful that he couldn't see what lay behind the dark glasses.

"Ah yes," the suit drawled. "Another one of your initiatives, Takahashi. Pulling criminals into the program. Clearly, that's working out well."

"It's not like you left me anything else," Takahashi said. There was a warning in his voice. AJ knew that warning. Knew to run the other way whenever it showed up. But the government guy didn't even slow down.

"Criminals like this scum." He took a step toward AJ. "Little better than animals themselves. Clearly, he should still be locked up. Maybe I should arrange that, since he seems to present as much of a threat as these monsters do."

The anger was still there, but fear was quickly surging forward to overwhelm it. AJ took a step back as the suit continued to advance, not sure what the guy caught up with him, but absolutely certain he wanted no part of it. The others were frozen around him, helpless as the suit reached for AJ.

He felt the impact through the floor beneath him before he realized what the sudden wall of brown was that had suddenly appeared in front of him. Leo had leaped from Shell Shocker's foot and stood between the suit and AJ, his fists clenched and every line of him radiating outright fury.

The suit took a step back, but recovered quickly, and the smile that crossed his face terrified AJ even more than the frown. "Ah. Hello, Leonardo. You're looking well."

"What are you doing here?"

AJ blinked, taking half a step back at the voice that was torn from Leo's throat. Leo  _never_  sounded like that. Not when AJ had tried to brain him with a wrench, not even when he'd come running to Raph's bedside in the infirmary. It didn't even sound like Leo. It sounded…

_Like an animal._

The suit's grin widened, spreading across his face like a slick of oil leaking from a ruptured tanker. "You've been up to some very nasty tricks. I've had a word with your ex-partner in Tokyo. I'm working on getting her transferred back here, so I can put you and your little  _family_  back in the cages where you belong."

Raph moved then, and for a moment AJ thought he was going to throw himself at the suit. Not that he blamed him. Rage powered through AJ, so hard that he thought at first that he was shaking with it, until he saw the looks of fear rippling across the faces of the ground crew techs who'd been slowly surrounding the altercation, and realized that he wasn't the one who was shaking. He turned slowly as the thrum of massive turbines growled through the deck like thunder.

_It was Shell Shocker._

"You promised." Leo's voice was as cold as the suit's. "We had a deal. You promised to leave my family alone."

For the first time, the suit appeared uncomfortable as he looked up in confusion at the Jaeger. "That was before-"

"You  _promised._ " Leo's fist clenched as he brought an arm into guard position. " _We had a deal!"_

The scream of metal dragged AJ's attention upward. Mikey was standing now, perched atop Shell Shocker's foot and standing in a mirror of Leo's position as Angel stared at him in helpless shock. The expression on his face…. It was Leo's, and on Mikey, it just seemed  _wrong_. Mikey shifted, bringing his other arm up to guard in perfect synchronization with Leo, and far above them, Shell Shocker responded, the giant metal fists swinging into position above the government goon.

"How…" the suit continued to stare upward. "That's… that's not…"

Before he could finish, Marshal Hamato arrived out of nowhere at a run, passing off an envelope to Takahashi. The other Marshal ripped open the PPDC seal, yanking out the papers inside. Slowly, a feral grin crept across the Marshal's face.

"What's this?" The suit straightened, as though he didn't have a giant killing machine hovering over him. "More tricks from your trained animals?"

"Oh, this?" Takahashi waved the papers. "Karai mentioned you might drop by, so we took the precaution of clearing a few things with Command. This is my permission from to remove you from my Shatterdome by any means necessary."

The suit took another step back. "What?"

Takahashi handed the papers back to Hamato, who immediately moved to Leo's side, placing a hand on his shoulder. Leo didn't even acknowledge him, still frozen and shaking, but at that point, it didn't matter, because Takahashi was...was…

_Awesome._

The suit put up a good fight, AJ had to give him that, but Takahashi was everywhere, striking out with moves that both echoed those AJ had been learning from the guys, and were somehow simultaneously much dirtier. The suit gave pretty good, too, drawing some kind of taser out of his pocket, but Takahashi struck it clear in a shower of sparks, whirling on the suit and taking him down with a kick square in the jaw. AJ would have cheered if he wasn't so incredibly freaked out. Lashing out suddenly, the suit tangled Takahashi's legs and brought him down, but somehow Takahashi managed to turn it back, flipping the suit over his head until he came down hard, the dark glasses skidding across the floor.

Instantly, the suit flipped back to his feet, coming up in a fighting crouch. Which was when he took the wrench Takahashi had grabbed from Raph's toolkit square in the temple. This time, when the suit went down, he didn't get up again.

Takahashi glanced down at the wrench, and shifted his gaze to AJ. "I have to admit, Rookie, it's effective. Good choice."

Dropping the wrench, he made a sharp motion with one hand. Between one blink and the next, three Japanese men in ground crew coveralls had detached themselves from the crowd and were standing in front of Takahashi.

"Get him out of my Shatterdome," he said, gesturing at the prostrate man at his feet. "I have paperwork to fill out."

The three bowed as a single unit, and one of them hefted the suit over his shoulder, melting into the crowd with him. Takahashi walked over and took the envelope back from Hamato, glancing down at Leo as he did so. "Get this under control," he murmured quietly, before vanishing himself.

Hamato's hand tightened on Leo's shoulder. "Leonardo. It is ended, my son." Hamato glanced over his shoulder at Mikey. "My sons. Return to yourselves now. Do not give them any further reason to fear us."

 _That_  was enough to snap Leo out of it. With a gasp that was almost a sob, he sank to his knees, Mikey dropping back into Angel's waiting arms a heartbeat later. A deep whine shook the deck plates as Shell Shocker powered down, her arms falling back into resting position. Leo covered his face with his hands as Hamato knelt next to him, and whispers spread around the bay in a hissing wave.

Raph stepped forward, his fists clenched at his sides, and the suit's dark glasses splintered beneath his foot.

AJ glanced around at the faces of the onlookers, and the rage reasserted itself, burning out of control in retaliation for the dormancy the fear had forced upon it. He needed to break something… or someone. He needed to get  _out_ , to where things made sense again. To where there was  _some_  kind of fairness, even if it was the kind that you carved out of the street with your fists and whatever weapons came to hand. He needed…. He needed to get  _away._

And before he even realized it, he was on the tarmac, hotwiring a bike in the patrol shed that would take him away from this place and back into the lonely anonymity of the ravaged city the turtles fought to protect, despite the fact that it would turn on them if it ever knew the truth.

If it was him in their place, he'd have let the kaiju tear the city to the ground.

Not sure who he hated more for that thought, he opened up the throttle and turned the bike toward home.

* * *

 

"[Shell Shocker](http://taiyari.tumblr.com/post/82557795456/i-must-confess-i-just-read-fantasias-pacific)" by taiyari

"[Leo](http://fivefootoh.tumblr.com/post/62209070136/leo)" by fivefootoh

[Seeing the Light](https://commutingtoreality.tumblr.com/post/164144951543/after-a-particularly-intense-drift-and-a) by commutingtoreality

 


	9. The Boneyard

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which AJ visits his mom, and bonds are formed over beer and battery.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is some mild profanity in this one. I generally try to write TMNT like something that might actually air on the network, but they're adults here, and I hit a point where, really, swearing was the only appropriate response. So be warned if that sort of thing bothers you.

 

 

 

 

**Chapter 9: The Boneyard**

* * *

 

Every time he returned, the streets he'd grown up on were just that much darker. Dustier. More dilapidated. After all, why put a lot of effort into neighbourhoods like his one if the kaiju were just going to come tear it down, right? AJ pulled to a stop in a dingy alley near the Boneyard and left the bike where it was – if anybody took it, it probably meant they needed it more than he did.

There'd been some repairs over the years, it was true. Mostly to the buildings on the main streets, to the homes of the people who'd had more money, and there'd been a big environmental campaign to clean up the kaiju blue contamination in the public parks, so they made out okay. But that was the thing about the kaiju – they didn't give a damn about rich or poor. They just ploughed on through, levelling everything in their wake. At least, this one had, making its way up the Hudson and storming its way with impunity through Manhattan until the military finally took it down. If only it hadn't taken citywide devastation to get the guys into a Jaeger…

_If only._

He turned off Bleecker, making his way up LaGuardia to what remained of Washington Square Park. It was there that that first kaiju had come to rest. They'd named it Colossus. It was still the only kaiju to ever make land in New York, thanks to the guys. AJ shook his head at that thought, casting that line of thinking loose before it caused the simmering rage in his gut to erupt again.

Desperate to redirect that dark energy, he stopped at a roadside stand to buy a handful of steamed pork buns, which would have been a luxury before he'd joined the PPDC. Thanks to the rationing, the cost of eating even at little stands like this was astronomical now. AJ felt a little guilty as he saw the envy in the passers-by who watched him, but no reason the poor guy running the stand shouldn't make a living. Letting the bao warm his hands as he ate, he continued down the road to where the spires of the Boneyard jutted up like skyscrapers in the long light of the setting sun.

When Colossus fell, the contaminants in the kaiju blue pretty much salted the earth, destroying all the vegetation in the park and the surrounding area. The military moved in shortly afterward and cleaned the kaiju down to the bones, but most of the skeleton had been too heavy to move. So in the way of New Yorkers, the city had turned it into a memorial.

Flower sellers scattered themselves around the memorial entrances, and AJ stopped to buy a rose from one of them before he made his way inside. There wasn't much in the way of security anymore; they'd hit critical mass on security checkpoints on all the memorials across the city even before Colossus, and after the kaiju flattened most of them, they'd just kind of given up on them. And lately, with the kaiju raining destruction across the planet, people had found better things to do then attack public memorials. At least the attacks by the Kraang had put the world's problems in perspective; it was just a shame it had taken the imminent apocalypse to do it.

The ribs of the kaiju arced up around him as he picked his way carefully through the white gravel, avoiding eye contact with the other memorial visitors in the polite way you did when people were grieving and trying not to show it. He didn't need to look up to find his way anyway. He knew where he was going.

It had been the students at NYU and the Academy of Art who had gotten the idea for the portraits. In the months after the site had finally been deemed safe for visitation, the students had put a nationwide call out to family members and gathered photos of all the people lost in the attack. Then, one by one, they had carved all the faces of those who'd been lost into the kaiju bones.

Angel's abuela was here somewhere, he realized. Someday, he should find out where she was and pay his respects. But not today. There was a much more important face he needed to visit today. Finally, in the golden light of sunset, he found her. He stooped to lay the rose at the base of the massive rib before he raised his hand to brush along the sweeping hair carved deep into the bone.

"Hi Ma," he said softly. "I missed you. Made some new friends this year. Thought you might like to hear about 'em."

* * *

AJ talked until the sun went down. Talked until his throat was raw and his legs grew tired, and he sank to the gravel with his back against the pillar of bone and his arms wrapped around his knees. All of the anger, and hurt, and confusion, he poured out to the listening face of his mother, frozen for all time in the bones of the kaiju that had killed her.

But it wasn't enough. He didn't feel better after pouring all of it out. He just felt… hollow.

He pushed himself slowly to his feet and turned to face the carving one last time. Sighing, he pressed the tips of his fingers to his lips, and reached out to rest them against the portrait. "Love you, Ma. Talk to you soon."

Jamming his hands into his pockets, AJ slowly wandered the winding trail out of the memorial and slipped into the lengthening shadows of the city.

His path homeward took him down Sullivan, and he was passing by the blue facade of a store that had been boarded up not long after the kaiju had fallen when he heard it: the telltale sounds of someone getting the snot beaten out of them. Scanning the dark street ahead of him, a dark smile tugged at his mouth as he identified the source of the sound. The gate across the alley next to the old storefront was ajar.

AJ's gaze darted quickly around the streets, finally falling on a group of kids making their way down the opposite side. Dodging an oncoming car as he sprinted across the road, he took the opposite curb at a leap and yanked the hockey stick out of the grip of the smallest. "Sorry kid," he called over the boy's protest as he took off with it. "I'll bring it back in a second."

Hefting the stick, AJ barrelled into the alley.

An elderly man lay sprawled on the concrete within, and the purple dragons crouched over him glanced up in surprise at AJ's abrupt appearance. The eyes of the obvious leader narrowed as he gave AJ the once over, taking in the PPDC uniform, and he took a step toward AJ. "You work in the Shatterdome?"

"Maybe." AJ rested the stick across his shoulders. "You work in this alley?"

The dragon curled his lip. "Look, you fight the monsters, so I'm giving you one chance to just turn around and walk away right now."

"Well," AJ drawled. "That's mighty nice of you." The stick dropped to the ground as AJ's grin widened. "Problem is, from where I'm standing, I'm looking at the monsters. And it's been a long time since I've gotten to slay me some dragons."

The leader's face shuttered at that, and with a mocking salute, he glanced over his shoulder. "Well, boys, don't let anyone say I never tried to be n—uuhh!"

AJ had learned a long time ago that letting an opponent finish his posturing was a stupid idea, and the dragon's bragging words were cut off as AJ's stick clocked him upside the head. The dragon went down hard, but AJ didn't have long to gloat before the others were moving, swarming over him in a purple wall, and  _damn_  but that guy in the back was big. The scrawnier one had a knife, which was AJ's first concern, but as he was busy trying to not get stuck with it, the big guy moved in behind him. AJ staggered as a beefy fist met the side of his head, lashing out with the stick to give himself some space as spots danced before his eyes. "Wow." He shook his head, attempting to clear his vision. "Little early for stars, ain't it?"

"I'd say it's more than time for lights out," came the leader's voice behind him.

_Aw, crud._ AJ shifted, trying to get his back against a wall.  _Three against one. Great odds._  He glanced over his shoulder at the empty alley behind him.  _At least the old guy got away. It'd be nice if he called the police, though_.

AJ didn't waste any words after that – it was taking every ounce of brainpower he had just to keep himself from getting creamed. The dudes were big, and mean, and AJ may have had months of training with Marshal Hamato in the Kwoon, but the thugs had been on the street a long time. They outnumbered him, they were no strangers to fighting in the close confines of the alley, and they weren't afraid to get their hands dirty.

As AJ ducked to avoid the broken bottle the scrawny guy lobbed in his direction, a blow from the bruiser threw him off, and though he tried to get the stick up to block it, he could see the flash of the leader's knife in the shadows illuminated by the streetlights and knew he wasn't going to get the stick up in time.

But the fatal blow didn't come. The clash of metal rang through the alley as a dark shadow materialized between AJ and the goon with the knife. The dragon glanced from the weapon blocking his attack to the shadow holding it, and his eyes widened in terror. "You! But you were gone!"

"Yeah," Raph's dry voice resonated off the alley walls. "Well, now we're back."

Raph twisted the sai he was holding, pinning the knife as his foot came up and sent the dragons' leader careening into a wall. Seizing the opportunity, AJ regained his footing and went after the scrawny guy, leaving the bruiser for Raph. The scrawny guy still had his own knife, and seemed to have recovered from the shock of seeing Raph if his wild attempts to stab AJ were anything to judge by, but now that he was able to give the dragon his undivided attention, AJ made short work of the thug. It was a lot easier when he didn't have to keep glancing over his shoulder. And if he was sure of anything, it was that Raph had his back.

And this… He was bruised, battered, and pretty sure that he was bleeding from a scratch on his arm and his nose at the bare minimum, but he felt more  _himself_  than he had in months.  _This_  was what was right – laying the smackdown on a group of thugs trying to shake down an old guy for his money. Not some government creep trying to lock up the only ones who seemed to care enough to keep the kaiju from wiping out his city… his home…. his people.

AJ raised the stick again, but something caught it before it could fall. Snarling, he turned, only to see it locked in Raph's massive fist. "Whoa, there, goon-boy," Raph said. "I think he's down."

AJ glanced down at the prostrate form at his feet, and loosened his hold on the stick. "Oh."

The sound of approaching sirens broke suddenly through the post-fight rush. AJ's head swung toward the sound with a gasp of alarm, but he hadn't even completed the motion before his feet were off the ground. With a squawk of shock and protest, he found himself dragged up the side of the building in Raph's iron grip.

When the police arrived seconds later, all they found in the alley were three unconscious purple dragons, and one very battered hockey stick.

* * *

AJ drew a deep breath, letting the cold air rush through him as though it could extinguish the anger that was still simmering deep in his gut. He wrapped his arms around his knees as he gazed out across the city, and let the breath out slowly. "Nice view," he commented. "Never thought to get up this high."

Raph smirked, one elbow resting on his upraised knee as his other leg dangled off the edge of the water tower. "Best seat in the house," he said.

The lights of the city spread out before them, and in the dark, it was easy to make out the trails of destruction from the kaiju attack that had never been repaired. They snaked through the bright grid of the streets like a dark serpent, and though the trail was broken occasionally as the damage path led through a wealthier neighbourhood, it inevitably went dark again as it made its way toward the Boneyard. From here, AJ could follow it all the way back to the bay, where it ended just by the distant lights of the Shatterdome.

Eventually, the silence grew oppressive, and AJ glanced over at the silent turtle next to him. "Why'd you come after me, man?"

"Someone had to," Raph said. "You're too much of a goon to be trusted to say out of trouble. 'Sides, you're still on probation."

AJ blinked at that. Probation? But… oh. "You mean you had to be sure I wasn't gonna tell anyone about you."

"Pretty much," Raph said. "Don't get me wrong, as far as goons go, you're one of the least annoying. But there's too much riding on us staying as secret as possible." He sighed, shifting as he looked out across the damage path. "Who've you got in the Boneyard?"

AJ picked at a rivet in the roof beneath him. "My ma. She's pretty much all I got left here. Dad cut me off and moved to Poughkeepsie with my little sister after I got arrested the first time. Said I was a bad influence, and he didn't want me talking to her anymore. Ma stayed so she could be here for me when I got out, but I kept going back in, and then…" he gestured toward the patch of dark in the light.

Raph let out a quiet sigh, and pointed at one of the areas on the edge of the dark. "We found Angel just over there. She was in school when the kaiju made land, but she sneaked off the evacuation bus and went back for her grandma. The kaiju flattened the building just as Angel got through the door." He leaned forward, resting his chin on his arm. "Once we were sure April and her Dad were okay, Mikey said we had to come looking for her. It was dark by then, and everyone was so busy freaking out, nobody even noticed. Mikey was the one who found her and pulled her out. She musta been trapped for hours, and the only word she kept saying, over and over, was "abuela." We looked, but by the time I found what was left of her grandma…"

He didn't have to explain. AJ knew firsthand what it looked like.

"We took her home with us," Raph continued. "Took her a long time before she was Angel again. Hell, took her a long time before she'd even  _talk_  to us. Splinter had to do something to make her eat. She was just… broken." His hand curled into a fist. "That's what made Leo decide we needed to go to the feds with what we knew. So nobody else would have to go through what Angel did. Her mom was out in the Midwest somewhere and Angel had to go stay with her for a while, but she came back and enlisted the PPDC the day she turned eighteen." His grin flashed in the darkness. "Donnie may have helped fudge her age on her official records a bit."

AJ's shoulders slumped as Raph talked, his mind still casting back to the events of the day. "I don't get it man. You guys tried to help, and they sent creeps like that dude after you. How can you not hate us for that?"

Raph gave a soft laugh, though there was little humour in it. "I wonder that too, sometimes. But for every  _him_ ," he spat the word as though it left a foul taste in his mouth. "There's an April. An Angel. A Takahashi." A green fist shot out to collide with AJ's arm. "Hell, even you're not so bad."

"Thanks," AJ said dryly, rubbing at his arm.

"Don't mention it." Raph snorted, and refocused his attention on the Shatterdome. "We do it because it's right."

"But it's not  _fair,"_ AJ protested. "You guys get locked up for trying to help with the kaiju. I get locked up for stealing rations to feed hungry kids. How is that  _right_?"

Raph looked over at him, the rising moon illuminating his raised brow. "Yeah, about that. April looked into your record and did some digging before you got here – don't take it personal, she does that for everyone who's gonna come into contact with us. And that stuff you stole that got you locked up the last time? It was for a hospital."

AJ went cold as Raph's words sank into him. He'd never known. All that time, and no one had ever told him. "Oh," he said quietly. "That…. But the kids were so hungry. I…." He looked down at his hands.

Raph's quiet voice drifted out of the darkness. "Sometimes  _right_  isn't so easy to figure out."

AJ scrubbed his face, shivering a little as the wind began to pick up. "How do you do it?"

That grin flashed in the dark again. "I ask Leo." Stretching out against the slope of the tower's roof, Raph braced his elbows beneath him as he looked up at the sky. "One of the good things about being on a team, y'know. When there's something that needs smacking down, I'll smack the crap out of it no questions asked, when I need to know what the right thing to do is, there's someone else I can ask. " He frowned up at the stars. "It ain't all galas and fan mail. Some of the stuff we need to do… Let's just say I'm really glad I don't have to make the decisions. I wanted to lead once, but after seeing some of the stuff in Leo's head… There's nothing in the world anyone could offer me that'd make me take that on now."

At that, AJ shifted to look at Raph. "So you  _did_  drift with him."

"Yeah." Raph's voice was cold. Bitter. "Once."

AJ bit his lip. Raph had hunched over, the light from one of the towers behind them shining through the riveted holes in his shell, and the curiosity that dragged at him was too much to ignore. "Sorry, man, but I gotta ask-"

"Why I'm not Shell Shocker's pilot?"

"Well, yeah," AJ said. "I've seen you guys fight together. If you're not drift compatible, then I have to seriously rethink my definition of that term."

"Oh, we're compatible. We just  _can't._ " Raph looked at him. "You know what chasing the RABIT is?"

"When you get stuck in a memory, right?"

Raph nodded. "Splinter and Takahashi both figured same as you, that Leo and I would be the best choice for Shell Shocker's pilots. Hell,  _all_ of us thought the same thing. 'Till we drifted." He reached up, his large fingers ghosting over the holes in his shell. "Know what these are for?"

AJ tilted his head, sensing there was more to the question than he was seeing. "They help hold you guys in the feedback cradle."

"Yeah," Raph said. "Now. But that's not why they're there. After we came out to the feds and they locked us up, they found out pretty quickly that a family of ninjas is hard to hang on to." His mouth twisted into a pained grin. "So they worked these little numbers out. Let them bolt us into a restraining harness on the walls of our cells."

Shock raced through AJ as he looked at the holes in a whole new light. "Shit," he breathed. "Didn't that… doesn't it…?"

"Hurt? Yeah. Imagine someone sticking hooks under your collarbones and using them to hold you in the feedback cradle, and you'll have an idea of how it feels."

"Shit, man." It wasn't eloquent, but it was all AJ could think of to say.

"Yeah," Raph said. "So we were in the Pod, linked up, everything looked great. Stronger connection than pretty much anyone else they'd seen. And then… I can't even remember it straight, really. We were still getting the hang of using the Jaeger, and came down a little hard. It jogged us in the cradle, and the pain… it triggered a memory."

"Of being in your cell?" AJ asked.

Raph shook his head. "Not exactly. I mean, it started with me, but..."

For a long moment, Raph was silent, his attention focused on AJ. There was a tension to the silence, and AJ held very still, afraid to breathe for fear of shattering the moment of judgement as Raph weighed him up.

"You heard what Leo said," Raph said finally, "about having a deal?" At AJ's nod, Raph lowered his gaze, his hands clenching. "We never knew. None of us. Not until we drifted. We just knew they'd take Leo away, and he'd come back… bad. Worse than the rest of us. One time he couldn't even stand. They were dragging him, and I didn't even know if he was… y'know. So I freaked. Pulled against the locking bars till my shell started to crack. The pain when Shell Shocker slipped set that memory off, and that one triggered Leo's. I finally saw what he'd been keeping hidden from us."

Running a hand through his hair, AJ let out a ragged breath. "You don't have to tell me."

But Raph just shook his head. "Nah. You're gonna be part of this… you should know."

"It's about that government creep, isn't it?"

"Yeah." Raph's dangling foot struck the side of the tower hard. "Leo. That asshole. He made a deal. Said he'd cooperate, let them do whatever they wanted to him, if they left the rest of us alone." He kicked the tower again. "He never even asked the rest of us, just assumed…. Smug bastard thinks he has to take it all on himself..." Dissolving into a string of guttural Japanese, Raph took his frustrations out on the hapless water tower.

AJ sat back, trying to process what Raph was telling him. "Is that why… when Mikey got burned by the feedback...?"

"Leo was a damn fool," Raph said, driving a fist into the roof next to him. "Of course that slimebag didn't keep his word – there were only so many experiments they could do on Leo before he broke. So they started in on Mikey just before the O'Neils and Takahashi sprung us. Of course Leo blames himself for that, too."

"And that's why he takes on more than his share of the neural load when Mikey gets hurt in Shell Shocker?"

"Got it in one. One day his brain'll turn to goo and drain out his nose, but until then, he's gotta be Mr. Martyr. And I can't even help him with that, 'cause I-"

Raph broke off with a sharp intake of breath, but AJ couldn't let it end there. Whatever this was, it had been building in Raph for a long time, and AJ knew a thing or two about bottled rage. "One sec," he said, and beneath Raph's bemused glare, AJ grabbed the ladder and slid down the side of the tower.

A few minutes and one quick purchase from a clerk terrified by his battered appearance later, AJ flung himself back up on the roof and handed Raph an open bottle of beer. "Here. It's medicinal. Takes the sting out," he said solemnly, and glanced at the bottle. "I may have sampled."

For a long moment, Raph just stared at it. Then, with a sharp bark of laughter, he grabbed it and took a long swig before passing it back to AJ.

"So," AJ said, pausing to take another drink. "What happened?"

With a little more beer to make the words come easier, Raph let out another bitter laugh. "I blew it. When the harness triggered my memory, I set off Leo's memories of what they did to him. Leo pulled out of it pretty much right away, but I…" AJ shoved the bottle at him encouragingly, and he took a little more. "I got stuck. I saw everything they did to him, and it was so  _real_. I mean, I was  _there._ And I just… I just had to  _stop_  it."

The more Raph spoke, the more it was coming clear. Raph had just told him that he'd nearly ripped the rivets out of his shell trying to get to Leo when they dragged him, unconscious, past his cell. If Raph had actually  _seen_  what had happened to Leo to put him in that state, it would have been a million times worse. Not to mention, Donnie was a genius, and he'd been messing with Shell Shocker since day one. Shell Shocker, which had just responded to Leo and Mikey's ghost drift without even the use of the Pons. Shell Shocker's sensitivity to the turtles' drifts combined with Raph actually being  _in_  it when it happened...

AJ grabbed the bottle and swallowed hard. "How bad was it?"

Raph took back the beer, staring at the rapidly-decreasing level within. "I took out a truck and two gantries and then triggered the self-destruct. We would've lost the Shatterdome and most of the city in a meltdown if Leo hadn't gotten through to me and talked me down." When Raph looked back at AJ, the pain in his eyes was evident even in the shadows on the rooftop. "So I'm not allowed to drift with Leo again. Ever. 'Cause I don't just chase my RABITs." He drained the bottle and flung it into the dark. The shattering of glass reached them moments later. "I chase  _his_."

AJ had never seen Raph look so… so broken. Words had never been AJ's strong suit, but he couldn't just sit there and do nothing. He reached out to rest his hand against Raph's shoulder.

But before he could make contact, the long, low moan of the evac sirens shattered the stillness of the night. Instantly, both of their gazes swung back to the Shatterdome, which was now blazing with light.

Shell Shocker was already halfway into the bay. By the time AJ turned back to Raph, the turtle was gone.

* * *

"[We never knew](http://fivefootoh.tumblr.com/post/75972381193/we-never-knew-none-of-us-not-until-we-drifted)" by fivefootoh

 

"[The Boneyard](http://ruslanan.tumblr.com/post/99412848906/chapter-the-boneyard-of-the-enemy-of-my-enemy)" by ruslanan


	10. In the Drift

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which minds drift, warriors rise, and kaiju fall.

 

**Chapter 10: In the Drift**

* * *

 

AJ dropped the last several feet from the fire escape, his breath leaving him in a strangled gasp as he stumbled and hit the ground hard. Cursing, he pushed himself back to his feet and pounded out of the alley, shoving his way through the river of people flooding the street. A string of profanity slipped from him as he ran through every curse he knew. Once he ran out of English, he started on some of the other words he'd picked up in prison, and more recently from the guys and April when they thought Marshal Hamato wasn't listening. Swearing himself blue, he battled against the current of terrified people as he made his way back toward the bay.

Flashes of blue and red illuminated the streets as police cruisers positioned themselves to help direct the throng of terrified people to the bunkers, giving AJ a clear view of the frightened kid in the alley who was trying to hotwire AJ's stolen bike. Without slowing down, AJ thundered up and laid him flat with a solid sock to the jaw.

"Sorry," he shouted at the stunned teenager as he grabbed the bike and finished the job the kid had started. "Still need it after all!"

The bike was far more effective than his fists at clearing people out of his path, and with the imminent threat of kaiju, the cops didn't do more than curse at him as he gunned it through the streets, weaving through stalled and abandoned vehicles and sparing a glance whenever he could at the rooftops overhead.

Finally, he spotted a dark shadow as it flickered across the street front of him, and he bit back another curse. If AJ had been able to catch sight of him, it meant he wasn't even trying to hide.

"Raph, you asshole!" AJ bellowed as he slowed the bike to parallel the fleeing shadow. "Get down here! The bike is faster!"

He lost sight of the shadow for a moment, and then a whole new streak of profanity was ripped from him as a weight landed hard behind him and the bike dipped crazily toward the street. But before he could lose control, the weight behind him was shifting, compensating with the annoyingly subconscious grace that never failed to piss AJ off.

A second later, the dry voice drifted over his shoulder. "You kissed your mama with that mouth?"

"Shut up. Yours never complained." As Raph grabbed onto him with a strength that drove the wind out of him all over again, AJ grit his teeth and opened up the throttle.

"Hey," Raph called as they wove through the emptied streets. "Did you rip this off from the Shatterdome?"

" _Now?_ " AJ called back over his shoulder. "You're really gonna lecture me  _now?_ "

"No!" Raph let go long enough to smack AJ upside the head. "If this is a dome bike, we should be able to patch in to the mission frequency!"

AJ's breath caught for a moment as he realized what that meant. It took him only a heartbeat more to decide whether or not he really wanted to know before he nodded. "Do it." As AJ concentrated on getting them through the streets without getting killed – or killing anyone else - Raph reached over his shoulder to mess with the controls on the bike. This close, AJ could hear the soft whisper of panic in Raph's ragged breathing as he punched at the buttons.

"Dude," AJ grunted. "They're called breath mints. Seriously, it smells like something crawled down your throat and died."

Raph punched him in the shoulder, but the panic in his breathing was gone as the holodisplay flared to life in front of AJ's face. He cursed, the bike swerving again. "Jesus, Raph, warn a guy."

"Just  _drive_!" Raph barked, and AJ attempted to comply as the holographic faces of Leo and Mikey floated before him and Angel's voice broke over the comm.

" _-calling it Kagidume."_

 _"Well, that's not in the least bit ominous,"_ Mikey quipped. " _I woulda called it Spikebutt."_

" _Mikey, focus._ " Donnie's voice was terse as he snapped at his brother. " _Stay in the drift… that's better. Alignment back at one hundred percent. Bridge is holding."_

 _"So where is this thing?"_ Leo's calmer tones interjected.  _"We're not seeing anything out here. Just a lot of dark."_

There was silence on the comm for a moment. Then, April's voice drifted through, very soft. " _Guys. I've got a bad feeling about this one._ "

Raph didn't even have to hit him this time. Narrowing his eyes, AJ pushed the bike to its limit, feeling the frame shudder beneath them as they roared toward the bridge. They could see Shell Shocker again, lit up by the rescue helicopters that swarmed around it like gnats. But sure enough, there was no sign of the kaiju. Focusing past the holographic screen of Leo's and Mikey's concerned faces, AJ watched the Jaeger in the bay as it circled, alone in the tossing waves.

" _Guys!"_ April shouted _"Guys, it's right on top of you!"_

" _There's nothing_ _out here!_ " came Mikey's frustrated rejoinder.

Right before the Jaeger jolted, and was dragged beneath the water.

The sound Raph made in the moment the Jaeger disappeared, a wordless cry of rage, and pain, and terror, sliced like a cold knife straight to AJ's heart. It was almost enough to drown out the explosion of chatter on the comms: April and Donnie calling out instructions as alarms shrilled throughout the LOCCENT. Angel and both Marshals relaying frantic orders. Leo and Mikey, their cries of alarm turning to screams of pain.

In a small mercy, the holoscreen flickered and went dark. But not before AJ spotted the trail of blood leaking down Leo's face.

"No…" Raph whispered against AJ's shoulder. "No…"

The comm chatter continued unabated. But it went silent as Hamato's voice broke in, and the icy calm in the clipped Japanese phrases ensured that even though AJ didn't understand the words, there was no doubt in him as to the authority behind what were clearly commands. Raph shifted against him, and as they hit the bridge, they were greeted by the sight of Shell Shocker bursting through the waves again. AJ's breath left him in a rush, and the comm chatter swelled once more.

"- _stay on it, it's breaching right-"_

_"-flooding in the abdominal compartments, you need to close the ports-"_

"- _rerouting power to the port muscle strand engine blocks-"_

_"Dudes?"_

It was the lack of emotion more than anything that caught the attention of the others, AJ knew. It shocked him, too. He'd never heard Mikey's voice sound so flat.

" _I can't feel my left arm…."_

Silence met that pronouncement as the implications of that filtered through to the others on the command deck. Raph's hold on AJ tightened. But it was Leo's calm voice that finally broke through the silence. " _We'll handle this, Mikey. Just like always. I'll take you out for pizza when we're done."_

 _"Promise?"_  Mikey's voice sounded small, nearly lost.

" _Ninja promise."_

Raph made a strangled, broken sound. Over the comm came April's scream of warning, and then the kaiju finally breached the surface.

A percussive wave of sound slammed into them as the kaiju screamed, and without Raph's steadying weight, AJ knew that it would have sent the bike straight off the bridge. The thing was huge, its bioluminescent markings illuminating the wickedly sharp claws on each arm and the four pronged spines on its tail. The spiny, malevolent head was like nightmares given shape, with a set of needle-like teeth the size of small buildings jutting out from its protruding lower jaw. Shell Shocker pulled back, but the creature's claws were already in her broken arm, and those razor teeth sank deep into her shoulder.

Mikey screamed, but this time, it was more rage than pain.  _"_ No,  _Leo, stay in your own damn head! I got this. You need to be_ Leo _now!"_

Then, as the brothers' cries echoed over the comm, AJ's view of the battle disappeared as the bike plunged into the Shatterdome.

The tires kicked up arcs of spray as they ploughed across a puddle of seawater, and the bike went wild, skidding uncontrolled across the floor. AJ would have been done for were it not for Raph's huge hand locking around his collar and hauling him free before the bike hit the wall. But there was no time for thanks; AJ was half dragged behind the turtle as they raced through the halls toward the LOCCENT, their footsteps echoing like gunfire off the concrete walls.

They burst breathlessly through the doors, startling nearly everyone present, and it took only a moment for AJ to realize why the LOCCENT looked oddly sparse. Marshal Hamato stood next to Takahashi, and in his hands were the orange and blue masks that AJ had expected to see – but also purple, and a delicate gold chain that swung gently from the Marshal's hand, the Shell Shocker pendant at the end catching the light in a flicker of sparkling fire.

"Aw, no," Raph whispered.

_Neural bridge initiated._

AJ held his breath. The AI was so damned impassive, but if he hadn't known better, he could have sworn that the synthesized voice sounded almost hesitant as it relayed its data into the silence of the waiting command crew.

_Right hemisphere….calibrating. Left hemisphere….calibrating._

_Error. Pilots out of alignment._

Klaxons shrilled from the monitors, and AJ's head snapped toward the holodisplays. Alongside Leo and Mikey, their muted voices still shouting, their faces contorted with the anguish of the feedback through their circuitry suits as the kaiju dug into their Jaeger, a second set of faces illuminated the display.

April, tears streaming down her cheeks from wide, unfocused eyes… and Donnie, looking like he'd just stared death in the face. And lost.

"Oh," Raph breathed next to AJ. "Oh, man. Donnie…"

AJ bit his lip as he watched the two frozen pilots, all their displays pushing into the red as they struggled through the Drift. The Drift, in which every thought you had was exposed to your partner. AJ wasn't blind – he saw the way Donnie looked at April. For all that the two were incredibly close, he could see the moments of hesitation sometimes when they touched, a distance overlying the closeness as April worked out just how much she was willing to say with her actions. April had just seen herself through Donnie's eyes… and he'd just seen himself through hers.

_Pilot-to-pilot protocol…failing._

Aside from the shrilling of the alarms, the AI's drone, and the cries coming from Leo and Mikey's comms, there was silence in the LOCCENT, all eyes on the disaster unfolding before them.

It was April who moved first, turning her head to look at her partner across the feedback cradle. _"Donnie,"_ she whispered, and AJ felt a twinge of embarrassment that an emotion so raw, so exposed, had to be overheard by hundred listening ears in the Shatterdome. _"Donnie...are we okay?"_

It was another endless moment before Donnie turned to look back at her. To stare at her with haunted eyes.

And then his expression changed. Softened. And he smiled.

"I'm in the coolest Jaeger in the Corps, about to go kick serious kaiju butt with my best friend in the world. You can't get more okay than that."

Though her cheeks were still damp, April smiled back at him, and it was like the sun breaking through an overcast sky. An odd sensation stirred within AJ as he realized that he couldn't think of anything he wouldn't give to have someone look at him with the kind of unconditional love that shone in April's eyes in that moment.

Every readout on their display leapt into the green.

_Neural bridge at one hundred percent._

"They're good!" Angel shouted, and a collective sigh of relief swept the assembled crew. Angel's brows raised as she looked over their display, and she added, "they're  _really_  good. Holy crap."

"Thank you for that scientific assessment, Hernandez," said Takahashi. "Hamato! O'Neil! Get out there!"

 _"Yes sir!"_  they chorused, and the main display filled with the sight of Quantum Bravo splashing down into the bay.

April's expression hardened as she threw herself against the harness.  _"Come on, Donnie. Let's go save our brothers."_

Donnie's face was a scaly green mirror of April's as Quantum Bravo quickly halved the distance to where Shell Shocker struggled with Kagidume. They were making good time, but on the readouts reserved for Leo and Mikey, the brothers' life signs were dipping dangerously into the red. Raph was rooted to the spot next to AJ, shaking, wound so tight that if he'd been a spring, he would have snapped. Marshal Hamato stepped up quietly behind them, putting his free hand on his son's shoulder.

"Trust in your family, Raphael." The rat's voice was serene, but there was as much tension in his face as there was in Raph's. If AJ could barely stand the waiting, what must it be like for a family of warriors to stand helpless on the sidelines while the rest of the family marched off to war? Hesitantly, AJ reached out and rested a hand against Raph's shell. It was a measure of the turtle's gratitude that he didn't immediately reach out and smack it away. Slowly, without any other acknowledgment of the gesture, Raph reached up and wrapped his massive fingers tightly around AJ's wrist.

 _"April!"_  Donnie's voice broke over the comm.  _"Time to break out that surprise we've been working on!"_

April nodded, moving in concert with her partner as Quantum Bravo's weapons systems engaged. While the Jaeger's first set of arms stayed at rest at her sides, the right hand of her second set lifted. With a thundering whirr, the plating on the right forearm disengaged from its configuration and folded forward into the Jaeger's hand. Gritting her teeth and grunting from the effort, April lunged against the harness, taking the lead as Donnie echoed her movements.

With an elegant flick of its hand, Quantum Bravo released the fan of razor-edged metal plates, which spun across the remaining distance between her and the battle and slammed against the kaiju's head. The monster let out a scream that made the speakers in the LOCCENT squeal in protest as the metal sliced through its skin, but doing so meant that it was no longer digging its teeth into Shell Shocker.

 _"Awright!"_  Mikey's weary voice echoed throughout the LOCCENT.  _"Cavalry's here."_

The holodisplays shimmered as Leo and Mikey redoubled their efforts, struggling to free Shell Shocker's sword arm as Quantum Bravo pounded toward them.

 _"Dammit!"_  Donnie cried, staring at his display.  _"Guys, we've got no plasma cannon. Didn't have time to load the rounds before we deployed."_

 _"Think of something,"_  Leo's tight voice answered. His nose was bleeding again, and AJ didn't think it was from taking on more than his share of the neural load this time.  _"We can't keep this up much longer."_

But Donnie was already on it, punching into his controls.  _"Angel! Get me sanitation schematics, now!"_

Angel didn't waste time questioning it. The wheels on her chair spun as she slid across the LOCCENT into another station and slammed against the console, typing frantically as her eyes scanned a glowing display. "Got it. Loading them on Screen B."

Donnie's face lit up in triumph.  _"Ha!"_

 _"I see it,"_  April added, and threw herself to the side in tandem with Donnie.

Raph's brow furrowed as Quantum Bravo veered away from Shell Shocker. "Where are they-?" he began.

Quantum Bravo's hand plunged beneath the seething waters of the bay. The screeching of tearing metal was audible even through the LOCCENT's speakers, setting AJ's hair on end. And when Quantum Bravo straightened again, she had a length of industrial sewage pipe held between her two upper arms like a bō.

Takahashi sighed. "The city is going to be sending us one hell of a bill for that."

"Mmm." Hamato's hand tightened on the masks he held.

Raph moved away from his father, his almost unwilling steps carrying him toward the main viewscreen. Like a shadow, AJ followed. He wasn't sure exactly what he intended to do, but whatever was going on, Raph deserved better than to have to deal with it on his own. Standing just behind Raph's shoulder, AJ looked on as Quantum Bravo whirled her makeshift bō and brought it down hard on the kaiju.

 _"Yeah!"_  Mikey's voice bubbled over the comms.  _"Take_ that, _Spikebutt!"_

If Mikey and Leo were agility and determination in their Jaeger, Donnie and April were grace and precision. The LOCCENT crew watched in rapt fascination as the bō whirled, systematically carving into the kaiju. The monster screamed, blue blood pouring from the wounds that Quantum Bravo inflicted, but slowly, painfully slowly, it began to relinquish its hold on Shell Shocker.

"Yes," Raph whispered. "Come on guys. You got this."

Mikey was cheering loudly. Even Leo sounded pleased as he encouraged Donnie and April, urging them to keep it up until he could get their sword arm free and end this thing. On the holodisplay, Quantum Bravo's pilots fairly glowed with jubilation.

Until the spiked tail lashed from the water, wrapping around Quantum Bravo and clamping down, the four spikes acting like a massive claw to anchor the tail in place.

AJ wasn't sure if the strangled noise came from him or Raph in that moment, but it was lost beneath the screams coming from Quantum Bravo's crew. The claws on that wickedly flexible tail pinned all four of Quantum Bravo's arms to her sides, the prongs on the tail digging stubbornly through the Jaeger's metal hide as the kaiju's talons went back to work on Shell Shocker.

 _"Oh god,"_  April gasped.  _"Four turtles… four pilots…. two Jaegers…"_

 _"...they planned for this,"_  Donnie finished. His face was bathed in red from Quantum Bravo's readouts, his voice nearly lost beneath the alarms.  _"We have to… to…."_  His head turned toward April, and his voice was very small as he stared at her.  _"...I don't know what to do."_

"Raph-" AJ began, reaching out. But Raph was gone.

AJ knelt, and with a trembling hand, picked up the red mask where it lay on the floor by his feet.

He hadn't heard him move, but when AJ stood again, Marshal Hamato stood before him. The rat's face was stone as the screams of his children echoed through the LOCCENT, and AJ shrank beneath the terrible honesty in the Marshal's eyes. "I don't know what to do," AJ whispered, echoing Donnie's words.

AJ flinched as Hamato raised his free hand, but the blow he was expecting didn't come. Instead, the Marshal's hand came to rest against AJ's shoulder. The weight of the world was in the breath Hamato drew, but when he spoke, there was no anger in it. Only sorrow.

"The only person with whom I might have drifted left this world many years ago," he said. "This battlefield is not mine. It is for younger hands to take up the sword now." The hand on AJ's shoulder tightened. "Too many have fallen already to this foe. I would not have my children added to their ranks."

AJ stared into the quiet storm in Marshal Hamato's eyes, and something stirred deep within him. His life had been a series of disappointments, one misery after the other… until coming to the Shatterdome. It had happened so slowly, he'd hardly realized it. Maybe he'd been in jail so long, he'd forgotten what it looked like. When he'd first come to the Shatterdome, he'd thought that Raph and his family were just a new bunch of enemies to deal with. Different faces, same old story. But over the past few months…weeks…

The Hamatos weren't just people he trained with anymore. They hadn't been for a long time now.

The line of his jaw hardened, and AJ pressed the red mask into Hamato's hand with a bow. " _Hai, Sensei._ "

In the next moment, he was out the door and running.

* * *

Raph had a head start on him, but the Shatterdome was full of personnel who knew Raph just as well as AJ did. All AJ had to do was follow the trail of fallen crew members who'd tried to get in Raph's way. The hadn't done a thing to stop him, but they'd slowed him down just enough.

"Raph!" AJ hollered at the fleeing turtle ahead of him. Raph had already made it to one of the gantry bridges. Grabbing a wrench from an open toolkit as he raced through the halls, AJ chucked it hard at Raphael. His shell protected Raph from most of it, but the blow was hard enough to make him stagger, and  _that_  was enough for AJ to finally catch up with him and grab onto his arm. "Forget it, man, I'm not gonna let you pilot that thing yourself. You'll burn before you make it into the bay."

Raph turned on him, and the look in the turtle's eyes was like nothing AJ had ever seen before. Suddenly, he understood just why that Purple Dragon back in the alley had been so afraid when he realized just who stood in the alley with him.

"You saved my life." Raph's voice was a barely-recognizable growl. "So I'm giving you three seconds to get your hands off me before I toss you off this bridge."

"Forget it," AJ snapped.

"Dammit," Raph snarled, "I'm not kidding around. _I'm not gonna let you stop me!_ "

_"Who said anything about stopping you?"_

AJ's face was about as close to Raph's as he could get, which meant he had a front-row seat for the flabbergasted expression that stole across Raphael's face. For a moment, he almost looked like AJ had hit him with the wrench again. "Wait, what?"

"Geez, you're slow." AJ prodded him in the chest. "And you say  _I'm_ the goon."

Raph reached out, as if to shove AJ's hand away… but AJ found his hand locked with Raph's instead. A slow, feral grin chased the pain from Raph's expression, and he followed AJ's gaze across the Jaeger Bay to where the Shatterdome's third occupant squatted like a hulking gargoyle.

_Bruiser Shindig._

Raph let go and folded his arms. "She's ugly, slow, and built like a tank…"

"She's perfect," AJ finished. "Now shut up and run."

* * *

AJ had thought he'd known what to expect. Hell, he'd  _been_  in a suit before. But he hadn't been suited up during a combat emergency, and was completely unprepared for the many sets of hands tearing his uniform off and stuffing him unceremoniously into the circuitry suit. Before he could quite process that complete and utter annihilation of his privacy, there were fingers in his mouth, prying at his teeth.

"Mmmph-- _hey!_ " AJ swatted at the tech who was busy removing his dental appliance.

"Can't have the metal in your mouth," the tech said, completely unaffected by AJ's outburst. "It messes with the signal from the thinking cap." Without waiting for an answer, he turned to place AJ's bridge on a table as a horde of other techs bolted him into the suit and shoved the helmet onto his head.

"Quit whining," Raph said, holding out his arms to help the techs working on him. "The world's coming to an end and you're worrying about your pretty face."

AJ ran his tongue over the large gap between his front teeth. It had been a while – he'd forgotten how weird it felt. "Shut up, gakface. I lost 'em in peewee hockey and prison dental covered it. You think I can afford a bridge that nice now?"

"Look on the bright side. Maybe the kaiju'll knock the rest of 'em out and you can get a whole new set. It'd be an improvement."

"You're one to talk, pretty boy."

"At least I got perfect teeth."

The techs released them as the door ahead swung open, and they raced together into the Conn Pod. As the techs locked AJ into place and the displays began to flicker to life around them, AJ was very conscious of the pained grunt that Raph was unable to hold back as he hooked into the feedback cradle and the locking bolts anchored through the holes in his shell.

 _No,_  AJ told himself quietly.  _It's gonna be different this time. This time_ I'm  _in the drift._

 _"Bruiser Shindig is online,"_  Angel's voice spoke over the comm in AJ's ear. " _Initializing P2P."_

"What's a shindig, anyway?" AJ asked, partly out of genuine curiosity, and partly because he didn't like the look on Raph's face and wanted to do something to get rid of it.

" _It's like a party."_ Angel answered.

"Well why don't they just call this thing Bruiser Party?" AJ grinned at Raph. "It's a pretty apt description, y'know."

At that, Raph finally glanced over at him, giving a wry snort. "With you on board? More like Goon Party."

"Hell, I'm way too fancy for that," AJ protested. "Didn't you see my nice, shiny teeth? This, man, is a Goon  _Gala_."

" _We can call it Susan if it will shut you two up,_ " Takahashi broke in. _"Get ready for drop."_

With a whoop, AJ reached over in time with Raph to punch the release, and the Conn Pod went into freefall.

As the Pod plummeted through its descent cycle, time seemed to warp and stretch. The drop was over in a heartbeat, and yet that moment of breathless weightlessness seemed to last forever. AJ's voice reverberated through the Pod, and as he heard Raph echo him, he couldn't help but smile.

It wasn't that he didn't take it seriously. Part of him could still hear the cries of the others, though LOCCENT had isolated those channels from Raph and AJ's comms. He knew what the stakes were. But if he let his thoughts linger on them, he'd be lost to them. Someone like AJ - he needed to  _act._  Needed to lose himself in the sheer visceral rage of the fight. And Raph… he got that.

The thrum of the docking bolts shook the harness beneath them as the Conn Pod came to rest in the cervical assembly and settled into its place on the Jaeger. The ground crews wasted no time; the flatbed on which the Jaeger squatted was moving the instant the gantries disengaged, rolling toward the open doors and the sea beyond.

_Neural handshake initiated. Neural handshake in T-minus twenty….nineteen…eighteen…._

"You ready for this?" Raph asked quietly.

AJ glanced over at him. No point in lying – his spiking heartrate was right there on the monitors for Raph to read, and the guy was going to be in his head in ten seconds anyway. "Scared as hell. Feel like I'm gonna yak, which would be really unpleasant given that this helmet's airtight." A grin tugged at his mouth. "Doesn't get much better than this." He was rewarded with an answering grin from Raph, and AJ had to admit, the bastard was right. He really did have perfect teeth.

_Neural handshake engaged._

* * *

_…laughter. His sister, beaming fit to burst as she brought her first solo bike ride home. The bike toppling over as he scooped her into his arms…_

_…incense curling around him, sweat beading his face as he struggled to master the katas that came so easy to the others. Especially Leo. It wasn't fair…_

_…the faces of the older boys as they gathered in a circle, their feet merciless as they struck out at his hunched form, all for having the audacity to ask to be on their team…_

_…April's face, her eye black, stubbornly set as he taught her to make a proper fist so she didn't mess up the next time…_

_…"You're just a bad influence, Arnold Casey Jones. Your sister will be better off out of state anyway"…_

_…Laughter. Pretending not to care about the stupid space show on tv, but secretly basking in the warmth of his brothers and April around him…_

_…the metal cuffs bit into his wrist as the cop pressed his face against the asphalt, but he could see the pinched faces of the kids he'd given the rations to. They wouldn't go hungry tonight…_

_…the Kraang was huge, MASSIVE, coming for Leo. His hands pressed against the glass, but it was too late. They were moving. Leaving him behind…_

_…air thick with dust like smoke. The screams around him as he picked his way through the rubble. "Ma? MA? MA, WHERE ARE YOU?"_ _There, ahead. Everything grey, so grey from the choking dust, but there, a splash of colour. The cardigan he'd bought her for mother's day. The red didn't belong against the bright yellow knit… God. God, no… Please… "Ma? Mama?" But her eyes. Open. Empty. Lost…_

_…he wasn't moving. God, why wasn't he moving? Limp between the soldiers dragging him back to his cell but he wasn't moving and there was blood there was too much blood NO NO WHERE ARE YOU TAKING HIM LEO NO - **the pain and the blood but he had to bear it had to endure for the others for Raph and Mikey and Donnie take the pain and they wouldn't hurt his brothers oh god why won't it stop someone FATHER make it stop -** screaming his brother's name as he threw himself against the harness the pain of his shell as it began to crack but he didn't care only his brother's name tearing his throat raw and the pain and the blood…_

* * *

AJ groaned, his head reeling.

_Left hemisphere calibrated._

Slowly, he took a breath, and turned to face Raph. The turtle's eyes were wide, but they saw nothing, still lost in the visions within the drift. Lost in his own nightmares, and the darker thread of Leo's that AJ had glimpsed. Gritting his teeth, AJ yanked on the brace locked around his left hand. Calibrated as AJ was, the brace around Raph's wrist moved in tandem, smacking Raph's hand into his own helmet. "Stop wallowing, dorkface, we've got work to do."

Raph blinked, and his distant gaze refocused on AJ. A moment later, his cocky look returned, and he nodded. "Then stop slacking off and pull your weight, goon boy!"

_Right hemisphere calibrated. Neural bridge at one hundred percent._

The harness beneath them trembled as the Jaeger splashed down into the bay. As one, the two pilots strained against the locomotory rig, and the massive, hulking Jaeger began to move.

"I have a name, you know," AJ said, his breath coming shorter both from exertion and anticipation.

"Yeah, and what the heck kinda name is AJ anyway?" Despite the fact that AJ could  _feel_  the agony of the harness jerking against Raph's shell with every step, there was no sign of it on the turtle's face.

"Well, I wasn't exactly gonna use my real name in jail," he retorted. "Arnold? Might as well put a sign on my fashionable orange coveralls instructing dudes where to kick me."

"Yeah, but  _AJ?_ " Raph shook his head. "It's totally not you, man. I'mma call you Casey."

"Don't I get a say in what I'm called?"

"Nope."

Nobody had called him Casey since his dad and sister had moved away. The sound of it rang strangely in his ears…but it worked. AJ had been a failure. A delinquent. A bad influence and a washout at everything he tried. But Casey?

Casey was a Ranger.

Angel's voice crackled over the comm.  _"All right, boys, you're almost there. Kagidume's classified as a Catetgory 2, but we've never seen numbers this high on the Serizawa scale before. May be our first 3. It's big. And mean."_

"How are the others?" Raph's voice was tight, and in his mind, Casey could feel the storm of rage beginning to spin out of control again. Gritting his teeth, he delivered a swift mental kick to Raph's head. Raph jerked in the harness, but the storm began to settle, the rage focusing instead on their target.

_"Stalemate. Quantum Bravo managed to get the staff between Kagidume's jaws and Shell Shocker, and the kaiju's kind of stuck. But neither Jaeger's going anywhere, and the engines in the muscle strands are failing. Once they go, the kaiju's gonna tear both of them apart."_

"Patch us in," Raph said.

Casey raised a brow. "You sure about that?"

"I'm good," Raph said tersely. But he glanced at Casey, and his voice was a little easier as he added, "'sides, I know I can trust you to smack me around if I let it get to me."

Casey snorted. "Just be glad I don't have a wrench handy."

Smirking, Raph punched into his left-hand console. "Engaging knuckle dusters."

With a low, audible ratcheting, the two massive lead cylinders embedded in the Jaeger's upper thighs rolled loose from their moorings to drop into the Jaeger's palms. Metal fingers closed around them, the added weight tangible through the feedback of the circuitry suit. Flicking his hand across his own console, Casey engaged a few switches, and was rewarded with the whine of the elbow rockets powering up. Despite the already-considerable weight and strain, Raph and Casey picked up the pace, and the Jaeger began to run.

"Now, Angel," Raph said.

Casey's helmet flooded with the desperate, panicked chatter of the two other Ranger teams, and for a moment, it felt like he was drowning.

" _—can't feel anything. I think the arm is gone—"_

_"—strands three and four just went—"_

_"—some kind of leverage, Donnie, I need to get the sword free—"_

_"—do you expect me to_ do _? I can't pull a weapon system out of thin air—"_

_"—it's getting ready to move again—"_

_"..guys, who is_ that?"

A moment of shocked silence fell across the comm. " _Is that Bruiser Shindig?"_

"No," Casey cried, excitement speeding his words and running them together. "It's  _GoonGala!"_

The elbow rockets fired, powering the Jaeger's weighted fists into the kaiju's jaw. With a crunch and a torrent of blue, Kagidume's razor teeth shattered, and its jaw hung loose, half torn off the monster's face.

" _Goongala?"_ Donnie's confused voice answered. " _What kind of Jaeger name is Goongala?"_

"An awesome one," Raph said, dropping the weights and locking the Jaeger's powerful hands around Kagidume's tail.

" _See?"_  Mikey said. " _This is why you guys should let_ me _name stuff. Can't trust an amateur to do it right."_

Spines ripped through Goongala's palms, translating into arcs of pain across Casey's hands through the circuitry suit, but the kaiju's tail slowly began to tear free from the rest of its body. With a bellow of pain, the kaiju relased Shell Shocker and whirled to take on its new opponent, only to be met by another powered fist. Screaming, Kagidume released Quantum Bravo from its tail and tore free from Goongala's grasp, diving beneath the waves.

Instantly, the beaten, dripping Jaegers moved into a circle, backs together. Casey's heart pounded against his ribs so hard he half-feared it was going to break them, but at the same time, he'd never felt anything quite like this. Raph was there, a solid, weighted presence in his mind, their anger and solace in the fight feeding off one another, Casey's strategy from years on the rink boosted and augmented by Raph's sheer physical skill. And yet, beneath Raph's presence in his mind, there was something else. A thin, tenuous thread that connected him not just to his partner, but to the other four in their respective Jaegers.

He'd been part of a team before. He'd though he'd understood what that meant. But this - this was something else entirely.

 _"Donnie!_ "

April's shout was all they needed. The Jaegers moved, Raph's instinctive knowledge of his brothers' and April's movements getting them clear as Kagidume exploded from the waves in front of Quantum Bravo. But this time, the four-armed Jaeger was ready. The staff spun into a blur, deflecting the strike from the tail as Quantum Bravo spun, a second array of razor-edged metal slashing out to keep the kaiju off guard, before disengaging the staff and bringing it down hard against what served the kaiku for knees.

Kagidume stumbled, and that misstep was enough to bring it straight into Goongala's range. The elbow rockets fired, powering Goongala's fist into the remains of the kaiju's face with the power of several freight trains, flinging the kaiju across the waters.

Straight onto Shell Shocker's blade.

The heated edges of the sword steamed and smoked as the kaiju's blood vaporized, cauterizing the wound as Kagidume's struggles grew weaker, and finally ceased entirely. As Shell Shocker lowered her single remaining arm, the kaiju slipped free of the blade and vanished beneath the peaks of the ocean.

_Kaiju signature…terminated._

* * *

The early morning sunlight breaking across the bay bathed the city in a soft orange light, illuminating the rooftop's six occupants as they sprawled across it. There'd been no discussion about it, really. After bringing the Jaegers in to shallow water, the turtles had just sort of left their Jaegers, helmetless, Casey and April pulled in their wake, and he hadn't even thought to question it. It just felt right, somehow.

Of all of them, Leo showed his exhaustion the least. He perched on the edge of the roof near where Casey had collapsed against Raph, looking out over the city that was just beginning to realize that the end of the world hadn't come after all. As if he could feel Casey's eyes on him – which, come to think of it, he probably could – Leo turned to look down at where Casey slouched, supported by the twin bulwarks of Raph's shell and the ledge behind them. For the first time that AJ could remember, Leo offered him a real, genuine smile. "That was some nice work, AJ."

"Casey," Raph corrected. "We're callin' him Casey now."

" _Seriously_?" Mikey whined from his place in the shelter of the covered stairwell. After Donnie had stripped the drivesuit from Mikey's left arm and fussed over the circuitry burns etched deeply into Mikey's skin, Mikey had retreated to the stairwell with a piece of roofing slate, proudly exclaiming about the fact that his arm looked like a microchip over Donnie's protests that that was not a  _good_  thing. But his expression had been dark as he'd tried to force his left hand to hold the slate, finally giving up and propping it against his knees as he drew on it with a rock. But the look he turned on Casey was free of those shadows; just openly annoyed. "Fine, if Raph gets to rename AJ, I'm changing April's name to Mako."

"No, you're not," April said, perfectly pleasant, but there was an edge to the sweetness that made Mikey's eyes go wide, and he focused his attention back on his slate.

"Ha!" Raph pointed at his little brother. "I  _knew_  you had a thing for her."

"Do not!" Mikey protested. "She's way more Leo's type, anyway."

Casey glanced between the brothers. "Wait, who is this Mako chick?"

"Out of your league, goon boy" Raph said, punching Casey in the arm. Unfazed, Casey punched him right back, his fist cracking against the hard casing of Raph's drivesuit.

"She's out of  _everyone_ 's league," Leo added.

April's smug voice drifted across the roof. "Not mine."

Five sets of eye swung around to stare at her. Donnie had propped himself against a leg of the water tower and April sat between his legs, using him as a backrest. The same techs who'd yanked Casey's bridge out of his mouth had lopped off her hair at the jawline so it could better fit into her helmet, and the wind teased the ragged, uneven ends of it across her face. Whatever had happened between them in the Drift that had nearly cost them their alignment, you'd never know it now. There was a deep, contented peace in April's expression that was mirrored by Donnie's as they sat together, his arms looped loosely around her waist, every trace of that awkward hesitation between them gone.

"Really?" Donnie asked.

April just smirked at them. "Where do you think I learned that trick with the hanbō?"

"Huh." Donnie smiled as he rested his chin on the top of April's head. "You  _are_  good."

"You know it."

"You're just full of surprises, Red," Casey said, giving her a mock salute.

April grinned at him. "I'll just have to tell you all about 'em during that dinner you keep asking me for."

It took a minute for Casey to process what she'd just said. His eyes went wide, and he almost found the energy to sit up. "Wait, what?"

The others snickered, and Raph punched him again. He knew that the smile spreading across his face was the definition of doofy, but he couldn't help it. April just laughed, leaning back against Donnie. "And I'm not the only one with surprises. Nice teeth, Jones."

"I've got a bridge!" Casey flopped back against Raph with an offended huff. "Jeez, none of you guys ever hear of dental work?"

"Perfect teeth, man." Raph kicked Casey's leg. "Told you."

As Raph and Casey bickered, out of the corner of his vision, he saw Leo catch Donnie's eye, mouthing the words, "you okay?"

Donnie glanced down at the girl in his arms, and looked back at Leo with a smile that held only the slightest shades of regret. He gave his brother the barest hint of a nod, and let out his breath in a contented sigh.

Mikey, meanwhile, had been scribbling furiously on his slate, his left arm gaining strength as he went, but he finally set it down with a cry of triumph. "There, perfect!"

Leo raised a brow. His left arm looked almost as bad as his brother's, but of course, you'd never know it from his expression. The dude's face was still covered in drying blood, but beneath it, he looked as if he'd just been out picking up pizza, not fighting to save the world from the apocalypse. "Mikey, what  _are_  you doing?"

The youngest brother grinned at the others. "Well, now that these guys have their own Jaegers, they need their own logos, so I've come up with a thing or two." He turned the slate around, displaying his artwork – shakier than usual, since the left was his dominant drawing hand. "Okay, see, Donnie and April are science and boring, so they get a nerd-thingy-"

Donnie's brows drew together. "Mikey, that's an orbital representation of an atom."

Mikey frowned at him. "That's what I said. A nerd-thingy. And the weird lumpy things at the middle of the nerd-thingy—"

"Protons and neutrons."

"—are purple and yellow, cause like these two, they finally figured out how they stick together!"

"but…that doesn't—" Donnie began, until April patted his hand.

"Let it go, Donnie," she said quietly, and smiled. "I love it, Mikey."

Mikey beamed at her. "I knew you would!"

"So what do you got for us?" Raph asked.

Mikey contemplated his slate. "That one's tougher, but I kinda like this." He gestured at one sketch, of what looked like a hockey mask with a pair of crossed sais behind it. "Cause I was thinkin', if Casey's gotta do the public thing with us now, too, instead of wearing his helmet all the time like we do, maybe a hockey mask could be his, you know,  _thing._  Different way to hide his face, y'know?"

"I like it," Raph said, examining the drawing. "It's kinda badass."

"But why do I have to hide my face?" Casey glanced at April. "She doesn't hide hers."

"Yeah," Mikey said, adding a few scribbles to his drawing. "But April's pretty."

"Hey!" Casey said, as the others dissolved into laughter around him.

"Ah, don't worry about it," Donnie said. "We can't all be pretty. And I bet I could rig you up something really cool. Maybe put some HUD and infra-red in the optics so you can use it to scan for weapons in the crowd."

Mollified, Casey settled back against the wall. "Actually, that sounds… really cool. I wouldn't mind packing a bit more heat to the fancy shindigs than you guys do. I ever tell you I figured out how to make a taser out of a potato masher and a pair of D-cells? Kept the bigger dudes off when I was in jail."

"Not bad," Donnie said, with a note of genuine appreciation in his voice. "Remind me to show you how to make an explosive out of party cocktails sometime. Could come in handy."

Next to him, Raph let out a snort. "Dorks," he said quietly, but there was approval in his voice. Before the Drift, Casey wouldn't really have understood why, but he did now. Watching the two Rangers in the shadow of the water tower, it was pretty obvious that anyone who wanted to stand a chance with April had to be good with Donnie, too. Because no matter what else was between them, Donnie and April were a part of each other, and anyone who wanted to be a in April's life was going to have to get used to Donnie having a major role in it.

And Casey was okay with that.

AJ might not have been. But Casey… that was the name his family used. And truth be told, it felt awfully good being part of one again.

"So," Casey said, glancing at the others. "What happens now?"

"We get ready for the next time." Leo pushed himself off the ledge. "The Kraang aren't going to stop sending kaiju through the Breach just because we stopped one. And Humans First are still out there – you can bet they're not going to be happy that there's more of us in the public eye now."

"But we can handle it." Mikey rose, moving across the roof to stand next to his brother. "Look at how awesome we were today."

"We were pretty good." Raph stood, tugging Casey, protesting, to his feet. "Gotta admit that."

"We were the best." April said as she and Donnie joined them, Donnie's arm slung easily over her shoulders.

"We were the penultimate team!" Mikey chimed in.

Donnie groaned. "That's not what that means!"

"Seriously, Donnie, let it go," April said. "You're gonna give yourself an ulcer."

Mikey's attention wasn't on his brother anyway. It was focused across the city, toward the bay. "Think we should have found a better place to park?"

The others turned to follow his gaze. In the shallows of the harbour, the rising sun silhouetted the three Jaegers. They stood together, united, a looming testament to the bonds of the Rangers that now piloted them. A warning to any who would stand in their way that they no longer fought alone. They stood as guardians to the city and all who dwelled within it. And at their feet, a long line of harbour traffic drifted and snarled around the massive metal feet that blocked the major shipping route.

"Yeah," Leo said quietly. "Maybe we should work on that."

As one, the family leaped to the ledge and took off over the rooftops, and once again, Casey found himself drawn in their wake. There was no hesitation. No pause as he threw himself over the edge to the next building. Before, he never would have done it, terrified of the drop and the unforgiving streets below. But now, he knew that even if he did slip, there were five pairs of hands that would catch him before he could fall.

True, the Kraang, and Humans First, and a whole mess of things were still stacked against them. But Casey didn't have it in him to care. Bound together in the energy of this odd little family, there was one thing of which he was very, very sure.

There was nothing that they couldn't do. Together.

* * *

"[Leo](http://fivefootoh.tumblr.com/post/86569177369/livestream-doodle-1-ready-to-kick-some-kaiju)" by fivefootoh

"[April](http://fivefootoh.tumblr.com/post/73474789173/i-wanted-to-see-april-in-a-jaeger-suit-rolls)" by fivefootoh

[April](http://taiyari.tumblr.com/post/102981133066/super-quick-thing-because-i-wanted-to-try-some-new) by taiyari

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe we've made it to the end. Huge thank you to everyone who supported me along the way, who made amazing art, who nominated this for the fanfic awards, and who cheered me on when it seemed like I'd never get to the end. Extra-special thanks to all the people who gave eyes on the story when I couldn't see straight anymore, and to wtf-skittens, who is my checker of Mikey's awesome level.
> 
> There is more coming in "Stories from the Shatterdome."  
> Love you guys. <3


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